My manual is the same as Mark's dated 15 Jan 1970. Mine is missing the extra piece of paper on page 44, but you can see the glue :classic:

I wonder how many manuals Nissan had to edit with the strategically placed pieces of paper. I guess we'll probably never know.

Andrew

Chris wrote:

>

> I can't tell you how surprised I was to find the mention in the owner's

> manual. We had almost come to the conclusion that the hand throttle was

> excluded from the American >market with the exception of a few cars that

> "snuck" in. Evidently not so.

Hi Chris:

Your first conclusion is correct. The Owners Manuals were supposed to be manually "edited" to delete the references to the "hand throttle". Maybe one day a copy of the Datsun Service Bulletin informing the Dealers of this - will show up on ebay. ( like the one telling the Dealers to install the rear window defroster if it wasn't installed at the factory).

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (MVSS) were in great flux between 1965 and 1970. You may recall that was when seat belts became "required"(65), head restraints became required (68 or 69) emissions controls were being introduced on all cars(66) and even the wheels had to be be certified for radial tire use - etc etc.

Nissan assigned it's East Coast V.P. (after Mr. K was appointed President of Nissan North American) to head up the study and tracking of the MVSS in Washington D.C. during that period, to report developments to the home offices and then, when the cars were released for production - he got the models through the certification tests necessary to sell them here.Wavers were common for a year or even two - on many of the MVSS items for many manufactures, if they had a good case to plead - so they don't seem to be standard at first blush. (See: "Nissan/Datsun, a history of Nissan Motor Corporation in USA 1960-1980" by: John Bell Ray)

The "hand throttle" was effectively one of the items banned by the MVSS, when Cruise Controls were becoming ever more popular...the specific requirement was that the throttle had to be released when either the brake or accelerator was touched. So all Z's imported into the US had to either not have them included in the first place - or had to have them removed prior to clearing US Customs.

Nissan would have been subject to heavy fines for not complying with any of the MVSS standards on cars sold to the public, and indeed if caught at the Port of Entry the car would not have been released. No inspection program was 100% at the Port of course -and few cars did get though to the Dealers with the hand throttle in place. The dealers were instructed to remove them prior to sale (many early cars came though without rear window defrosters.. and the dealers were instructed to install them prior to sale).

Today it's all but impossible to tell which, or how many, were added by previous owners over the years. I do know that in 1970's several of the Z owners I knew added them, by buying the necessary parts over the local parts counters (in Washington State it was a wonderful way to warming the car up in the winter - without running the engine so rich it fouled the plugs - using the hand choke).

Given that in the early months of production - only a few thousand cars were produced, only a few thousand Owners Manuals had to be "edited" by hand.. until the newer printings were available.

We should try to pin down the earliest date of printing on the Owners Manuals - that had the hand throttle - not included.... ie not shown, nor edited out.. but rather showing only the choke in the pictures and lists.

FWIW

Carl

Originally posted by Carl Beck

We should try to pin down the earliest date of printing on the Owners Manuals - that had the hand throttle - not included.... ie not shown, nor edited out.. but rather showing only the choke in the pictures and lists.

FWIW

Carl

I think Kats mentioned only his Jan 1970 manual has the editing.

Maybe that means the March 1970 manual he has is the newer version, without editing.

Strangely enough, Looking through the manual for my 1972 UK series 3 car, there is still one picture showing the hand throttle, when the car itself and all other pictures have the later style series 3 console which has no provision for a hand throttle.!!!

Andrew

Hello everyone,thank you very much for a lot of inputs.

Just a quick reply,of my understanding.

#1 20th Dec 1969(010100)/OM0E-0S30G0 courtesy 26th-Z

#2 15th Jan 1970(020200)/OM0E-0S30G1 I have one

#3 20th Mar 1970(030300)/OM0E-0S30U2 I have one

#4 29th?Nov1970(I forgot) /I used to have this,but I was sold

#1 has a shot from left front for a top cover,some pictures are slightly different from later ones.

#2 and #3,#4 have same shot from left side for a top cover.Note:the emblems are ridicurous because they are hand writing.Seems to me the car is a same of press release version"non-badging anywhere Z"

#2 has a rivision paper,#3 does not have paper anywhere,this is completely revised version about hand throttle.

Up to #3,there is no tail light panel picture mentioning bulb replacing.

But #4,it has a picture of replacing bulbs at rear teil light.The trim panel has a lid for replacing bulbs.Remember the earliest s30's tail light trim does not have a lids for replacing.The actual Vin number for this change is in the technical bulletins from Jan 1969 to Dec 1972.

kats

Great, kats

Thanks.

Originally posted by kats

Up to #3,there is no tail light panel picture mentioning bulb replacing.

But #4,it has a picture of replacing bulbs at rear teil light.The trim panel has a lid for replacing bulbs.Remember the earliest s30's tail light trim does not have a lids for replacing.The actual Vin number for this change is in the technical bulletins from Jan 1969 to Dec 1972.

kats

Kats/Anybody, do you have any information on when/what VIN the tail light trim changed. My April 1970 car does have the lids for replacing the bulbs, but I suspect it has been changed for a later one.

thanks

Andrew

Please see this,I will be back soon.

kats

Kats comes up up with the goods yet again!!!!

thanks for that.

Looks like mine might be original after all.:classic:

regards

Andrew

Thanks kats. :classic:

I am however intrigued as to what differentiates a 'california' model hls30 car from the other hls30 cars ( as shown in the file technicalbulletintailpanel.jpg)

Andrew

California has tougher emmissions standards, Andrew.

Thanks for that Chris

Does that mean non CA cars don't have the air pump and all the other intake bits that clutter up the engine bay so nicely on California cars?

regards

Andrew