Bruce Palmer

This thread is everywhere!! ;^)

Try this --- With the lid off, turn the float bowl lid vertically with the pivot pin up and the pivot hanging. While blowing into the fuel inlet tube move the float toward the lid. If the needle and seat is closing, you can feel the increase in pressure to your breath. If it is closing to your satisfaction then check for sunk float, excess fuel pressure. As an aside: When you feel the increase in back pressure when moving the float closed that is also your float level. Hold it there and measure. There is a little spring inside the needle and seat that throws any other the method we show on the video into a cocked hat.

... that if the float IS in fact closing the needle and seat that that would stop the flow of fuel into the float bowl. No fuel in = none to run out. Either a stuck needle and seat, foreign material in the needle / seat area, or a sunk float. Sounds like a job for our JUST SUs video/DVD

.... The MSA carbs are ZTherapy production and come with the same 3 year warranty all of our carbs get.

Just about fell out of my chair reading this thread mentioning Scott Bruning as "the source". Then I caught the dates of the posts. The bottom of the piston is the "bottom" of the piston..... Any adjustment up and down is as previously stated, like putting in a different needle.

All those needles are tapered so the OD is infinitely variable along the length. Not all needles are the same at idle position. Raising or lowering the needle in the piston would be akin to changing needles. Air/fuel is controlled by the OD of the needle and the ID of the nozzle orifice at a GIVEN PISTON POSITION which is controlled by the volume of air drawn into the engine at any RPM.

October 7th Datsuns Northwest (www.datsunsnw.org) will be hosting a fun Run to Mt. St. Helens. A caravan will leave the Chalet Restaurant parking lot at Brooks Oregon (exit 263) at 9 AM. We will hook up with the Portland contingent at the Delta Park Burger King at 10 AM and plan on being in Castle Rock at 11 AM to meet any and all coming from the north. We'll grab an early lunch and head up the mountain when everyone is ready. Bring binoculars as there is some great viewing from the overlook areas.....

There are no gaskets to fuss with. Merely remove the screws holding the domes. Maybe use a small pair of vice grips to break them loose as the screw heads tend to deform with a screw driver. We believe Hitachi had Magilla Gorilla installing the domes at the factory. Remove the domes and pistons (don't bend the needles, lift the piston carefully straight up) and clean 'em up internally. Put 'em back on and while retightening the dome screws keep raising and dropping the dome to make sure they aren't binding.

Back on the SU situation for a second. The biggest problem with tuning old SUs today generally has to do with the fact that most of them at this point in their life are worn out. Speaking for the ZTherapy built carbs (which is all I know or care about) once the 3 or 4 systems have been returned to square one (as new) they are a piece of cake to keep up with. I tweak mine once in the spring when the weather changes and once in the fall when the weather changes, add a little damper oil every once in awhile and that's it. Worn out SUs don't tune for sour owl feathers even if a guy knows how to tune SUs. Our video and DVD is a heck of a coaching tool for dialing in your own.....

... The first thing one should check is to make sure the fuel nozzles are spot on. The opening in the nozzle should be round and measure .100". A lot of used carbs have holes worn egg shaped which means all meaningful metering bets are off, no matter the needle. Rich or lean can also be a function of float level. Ultimately when all is said and done with tweaking of your SU carbs you should be able to remove the dome and piston and look directly down into the nozzle and see the static gas level within a sixteenth of the top of the tube. If the gas level is way down the nozzle things will probably be lean and if gas is puddled up on to of the nozzle, things be fat. All the float level does is to set the fuel level in relation to the top of the nozzle. In the How to Modify Datsun Engines and Chassis from '73 by Bill Fisher and Bob Waar, the first 240Z tuneup upgrade included distributor spacers to control the advance curve and solid core plug wires, as well as richer SM needles so this profile has been used succesfully for a long time.

... at DatsunsNW events. People getting together enjoying the marque does. Look forward to seeing one and all at either or both events....

.... anticipate bringing parts to sell?? Email me if you are so I can budget vendor space. ALSO: Datsuns Nortwest will be hosting a fun run up to Mt. St. Helens on Oct 7..... Check in at www.DatsunsNW.org for details. EVERYONE WELCOME!! We would like to see soem Seatleittes come down and join in the fun......

With our JUST SUs video or DVD you can be THE SU guy in the DC market. Not that anyone would want to be...... ;^) 503-587-9800 Also read the description on our Tune Up video for other engine related issues.

One thing to check while you're running the traps looking for culprits on that starvation issue. Check and make sure the final filters in your float bowl lids are not partially blocked restricting fuel flow. And on the SM needles if they are fat at idle run the nozzles up half a turn and see what that does. Should still "idle fine" just wont be as fat and the half turn at idle wont affect much of anything up top. Keep playing 'til the fat at idle goes away.

One of our carb customers from Louisiana has his engine at Awesome Z at the moment on our recommendation. Good folks. Engine rebuilds are a lot like buying oats -- You can buy the oats after they've been through the horse and they are cheaper..... Keep this in mind if you decide to go thru it your self when choosing hard parts. Without someone to rely on for parts selection help it can be a real crap shoot..

Sunday September 17th Datsuns NW is sponsoring an ALL Datsun swap Meet from 10 'til 4 at Tonkin NISSAN on the west side of the freeway in Wilsonville Oregon. A fee of $10 per 10' space will be charged with the proceeds going to a charity to be chosen. So, for those of you who didn't get enough parts exposure at Canby, come on out and build your stash or reduce your stash before winter sets in. For info contact me at sales@ztherapy.com

Ztherapy has a part number for this very swap over that even includes a reduced core cost. ZT161 is the item. Check it out.

... the kind of input the club needs. Why not join the club and help improve it from within? Meetings 3rd Wednesday at Tonkin NISSAN Wilsonville.... $24 a year. We'll have a car corral at the Portland Historics stop by and have a chat....

Arne, The reason you weren't all that excited to show your british car was due to the fact you had a full time job just trying to keep the bodily fluids in the damn thing....... anyone who has ever owned one give us a silent amen. On the swap meet front, I broached the subject tonight and one guy offered up the fact he has a bunch of parts but did not want to miss the happenings being tied to a vendor spot for 2 days. Just one point of view but valid from his standpoint. The club is going to work on a site where we can do a Datsun swap meet or swap meet show and shine a couple of times a year...... Overall the comment cards from the show were very very positive.

The Central Oregon Autocross club is hosting an autocross at Hoodoo ski area the 15th and 16th of July. We'll be leaving the Swiss Village restaurant between milepost 23 and 24 east of Salem about 9 AM and will be heading up the North Santiam canyon to spend a day goofing around under a pine tree at the autocross. Any and all Datsun owners are welcome to come along. No charge. Would be a good chance for central and south valley Datsun owners to treck up their respective routes and join in the fun......

I have been away for a few days on business but did want to follow up on this. Arne, when you come up to visit the shop, which you still need to do, we need to get Loran and have lunch and kick you guy's suggestions around. We are having our monthly Datsuns NW meeting tonight and I'm interested in seeing what comes out in the discussion along these lines. As it relates to the swap meet, other than putting the word out and waiting to see who shows up, I don't know what else to do. Datsunland SOCAL registered but didn't show. Any of the Jegg's kind of vendors would laugh at us..... I'm also more than a little curious why a Good Guys street rod event as an example can charge $150+ to register and a regional Datsun meet put on by volunteers can't get people to willingly cough up $30 to support the effort right here at home. Just curious.

Not to hijack this thread but I want to ask what y'all thought of the event this weekend. This old boy had a hard time getting up this morning after walking X miles during the 2 days. I had not been involved in putting one of these together for quite a number of years and had forgotten how many details there are that need to be chased after. Anyway, any thoughts or comments of what we might do to make it a better event let us know by either an email to me or the webmaster at www.datsunsnw.org. Thanks for coming.

Contact Rob Fuller at Z Car Garage in San Jose 452-0350 140 Archer Street.

... from one of the guys coming out from NYC, is we may be doing some photo shoots of vehicle groupings for Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. If that comes together it'll happen Saturday afternoon.... Get 'em shined up kids.... We had 11 Datsuns at the first cruise-in of '06 here in Salem last night to generate interest for Canby. 4-Zs, 4-dimes, 2 roadsters and 1 1200. Great time. Some of those street rodders burnt more gas with their launch, leaving, that I'll burn all week.

At 9 am any and all who want to go are meeting at Les Scwab in Sandy for a run up to Mount Hood. Registered or not join in the fun..... As far as the swap meet goes, we won't know what's there 'til all the vendors show up. We had a fair amount of trouble this year getting people ahead of the registration curve if ya know what I'm sayin'. It's the classic old "a decision avoided is a decision avoided"...... Oh almost forgot -- There will be "a few" saturday night Bar-B-Que tickets available for sale Saturday. Lottsa datsun stuff showing at the party so if you want a ticket get to checking early or email me and I'll see if I can get tickets set aside. $15 ea.