Captain Obvious

I don't consider it academic at all. You say you took two of them apart and the washer was in a different place between the two sides. Now that you have measured the length of the distance piece and found them both the same, I consider only the following two possibilities: 1) One of those rear corners was assembled wrong. Very wrong. Or... 2) You were mistaken about the location of the washers upon disassembly, and they were both installed in the same relative position on both sides. Either both in series with the distance pieces, or both between the inboard bearing and the companion flange. I had originally considered a third possibility that one of the rear knuckles had been machined to have longer distance between the two bearings than the other, but the factory spread from distance pieces (from length "A" to length "C") is 0.2 mm, and there would never ever be a need for a 1.0mm thick washer in there. So unless some repair shop went in there and added metal to the bearing seating surface, I consider this possibility very unlikely. I think you still need to determine double dog sure where those washers go. And back to it being academic? It's not. If there IS a measurement mismatch, it's not as bad as you think. It would be a relatively simple procedure to machine replacement distance pieces of the proper length. In fact as a side note, I just went through this a few weeks ago with the cheap-o aftermarket lawn mower blade spindles I purchased. They were incorrect as purchased, and I had to adjust the lengths of the distance pieces between the two bearings. During the process, I accidently cut the second one a thousandth too short (crap!!!) and had to make a completely new replacement. BTW - I'm all in that the washers go between the inboard bearing and the companion flanges, but it's still prudent to wait for confirmation.

Yup. I made that knob. Top to bottom. The knobs I've made are a labor of love. Easy? No!! If I had a Kenmeri shift knob that I cold use as a pattern, I could probably copy it. But to be honest... If they are available already, then it's probably cheaper to just buy one.

I've also done some customization work to my 77. It's a "Stage 1".

Wow. Cheap! I was looking at that damage thinking about ways to fix it, but at that price, there's no way. Cool! Make sure you get the tapered edges facing the right way on the new one! You won't have tarnish marks to use as a guide like you probably had on the old one. Bet you can't wait to get those things back on the car and see how much better things work!

It gets worse... There isn't even any email support contact. The ONLY support is on their user forum. And wait... It gets worse yet! ..................... You ready for it??? You have to be logged in to post on their forum. The problem I was having was that I can't log in because my account is locked. Catch 22!!

Poor condition would be it burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp.

I did that too. Way back many moons ago before things got security tightened I had an account for Heim Nassole. I even found some family there. But in the past year or so I deleted that old acct and went legit because I actually wanted to try to use the facebook. But get this... Now that I've deleted the old fake name acct and created a legit one, my account gets locked about every two weeks or so "because they detect suspicious activity". What suspicious activity? I haven't even logged in for two weeks??? I have to send them a picture of me, or a copy of my ID about twice a month, and there's no way to contact them. Their user forum is the only "help". I started a topic there with the details, and got no response. Nobody read it, nobody responded. Nothing. Waste of time. It's really taking what little joy there was out of it.

Oy. Nice throttle plate. At least you have a plausible explanation. When I saw the first pic, my thought was "improved throttle response off idle" or something stupid like that. Then I read your theory about drilling the progression holes, and that makes much more sense. Out of curiosity, what's a replacement run cost wise?

I do. And I've been known to make a knob or two: But I'm nowhere near the Bay area!

I share the experiences and impressions above. Facebook has decimated some of the on-line forums, but thankfully this one seems to be doing pretty well in face of the changing of the guard. I attribute that to the quality of people here. This IS my social media. I know at least one younger Z owner local to me who is on this forum and he spends more time on facebook and youtube. He's suggested that I become more active on the facebook forums, and he also suggests that I make videos and post them up on youtube. Hard to do those things with a flip-phone and a Polaroid camera. Not sure how it's gonna turn out in ten years. "Get off my lawn!!!"

What was the last series? Because that's what my 77 is. There were some minor changes between 77 and 78, but not enough to warrant a series change. However, with all the sheet metal redesign, there was clearly a series change between 76 and 77.

I did it three. Kids are a PITA. It's clearly not a geographical phenomena!

Nice! I like the exploratory discoveries!! Haha!!

Mmmmmmmm.... Those sure are purty!!

Yeah, because as we all know... Leaks at the rear of the Z pull in fresh air.

As Zed Head mentioned, that is normal behavior. This is what the circuit looks like with the ECU installed: If you pull the ECU out, it disconnects each injector from the others and you can test them individually.

And that's exactly why you need measurements. At this point, I don't think you can trust the documentation. Nor do I think that you can trust that things were assembled correctly before you took them apart. Measurements.

Well the confusion (for me anyway) just keeps getting deeper... Part number 43211-N3400 shows up on the parts breakdown pic needing four per car (one on each end of the distance piece). But part number 43211-E4100 (the one called out for on that TSB) shows up used on the R180 differential, two per car. I didn't see 43211-E4100 called out for in a corner application other than on that TSB, just inside the R180. Just keeps getting weirder and more confusing. Matthew, Just to be sure there isn't something catastrophic about to happen... Before you press the wheel bearings back together, you should measure the length of the distance pieces and also measure the distance between the bearing seating counterbore surfaces inside the rear strut housings. Those measurements will tell you if there should be any washers needed on the ends of the distance pieces. Based on the lack of clear documentation, I would check those dimensions just to be sure. Something is really fishy....

Yeah, I've seen that workaround. Too late for me though. I suspect that workaround will only last as long as it takes their programmers to fix the leak, and then it won't work anymore. I've move on and have started deleting my old pics and rehosting them in a new location. Little bit at a time as I can spend cycles on it.

I sure hope we aren't headed to an era where people are turning everything into "Series Ones" because they're worth more. With the recent spike in prices, I wouldn't be surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.

Zed Head, Yeah, I turned up that ebay link when I went searching, but I found it on ebay US instead of ebay Ireland. Same item number, but a slightly different listing. Item number 171746383140 and here's the listing I found previously on ebay US: https://www.ebay.com/itm/6x-RAM-Fuel-Injector-For-485cc-NISSAN-Skyline-RB30E-280ZX-300ZX-Z31-High-Flow/171746383140?hash=item27fce1d524:g:UTgAAOSweGxZc4v7&vxp=mtr When you look at it on ebay US, there is a sentence in the item description that reads: 1/84-9/89 Nissan 300ZX Z31 3.0L VG30E. 9/85-12/90 Nissan Skyline R31 3.0L RB30E. NEWRAM PERFORMANCE FUEL INJECTOR -PIG TAIL. up to 8/85 Nissan Skyline R30 2.4L L24E. 10/78-5/84 Nissan 280ZX S130 2.8L L28E. That sentence is not included in the Ireland listing. Interesting to me because of the mention of "Newram", possibly as a manufacturer's name? But I unfortunately turned up a dead end on "NEWRAM" as well. Google just found lots and lots of "NEW RAM" injectors for my Dodge.

That's just so wrong. I mean, if you know ahead of time, it's not the end of the world. But with no notification about the change... That's just wrong. Glad you got it figured out before you ran a nut fully down onto one of those studs. How Do I Hate Rebuilts??!!

So I took a look at my PO installed aftermarket injectors and couldn't find any part numbers on them. The only markings I could find was "RAM". I took a look on-line for that, and unsurprisingly, the only thing I could turn up was Dodge Ram injectors. Anyone know anything about these? Heard of that manufacturer?

Confusing and contradictory. The parts breakdown clearly shows two washers P/N 43211-N3400 used on each side of the distance piece, but I think it's a documentation error. On page RA-9 of the 73 FSM, they make a vague reference to the "bearing washer" in step 7 when they say to "Remove the distance piece, companion flange, and bearing washer." At that stage of disassembly, they have already removed the large staked (caulked) retaining nut and pulled the stub axle out of the housing, so it's clearly not talking about the hardened washer under the staked over retaining nut. That's a different washer. And there's no way you need two of those things on each side... Makes no sense at all. Also note that in later versions of the documentation, they stopped referring to that bearing washer, thereby supporting the belief that it was dropped from later cars. I think the documentation is wrong and there was only one per side, and the correct location is not what is shown in the parts breakdown pic. I think it should be between the inner bearing and the companion flange. I also think the "from 7308" usage dating should be a "to 7308" (not from, but to) if that washer was used up to sometime at the end of the 240 cars. The distance piece was selected at the factory based on the width of the counterbored faces that support the outer bearing races. Seems they couldn't quite control the machining tolerance well enough there, so they resorted to characterizing the assembly using different length supports between the inner races so there wouldn't be too much side load on the bearings. I think a washer in there would completely defeat the distance piece selection and end up with way too much side load on the bearings. Anyway, I think there should only be two of them per car. And (like others) I didn't have any of those on my 280.

I don't know anything about plating other than it's one of the black arts and I suspect that small seemingly immaterial details might not be so immaterial. For example: About brass vs. copper wire: Was the copper wire nickel plated, or bare? Who knows what nickel would do in the mix... Also, since brass contains zinc, maybe the localized zinc source helps prevent marks where the wire was? (As opposed to high purity copper with no zinc) About the sacrificial zinc anode: I couldn't find details on just how pure Caswell's zinc plate is, but I did find an MSDS for Moss Boss that says it could be as low as 98% zinc and as high as 2% copper. Who knows what copper would do in the mix on the plate... MSDS here: https://www.menards.com/msds/103923_001.pdf Just musing...