Arne

Nope, they look too big to me. Not right for a Z. I do like modern tires too, I've got 225/45-17 on my family car. But it just doesn't look right to me on a Z. Might do the 15's, though, when I replace my mis-matched 14's.

You might be right. But Danny's would be a lot handier for me - they are located all of 70 miles away, so I could avoid shipping on bulky items.

I've left voicemail on the phone, and tried via e-mail as well. Can't get a reply from Danny's Datsuns. Anybody been in touch with them lately?

I like the vintage style, that's what's on my car as well. (Not a matched set, though. ) The 15" would probably be OK, but the 17" don't look right to me. Something about that style wheel doesn't lend itself to the "big wheel - low-pro tire" look. Just my opinion, of course.

Hitachi built them, but they are SU's built under license from SU.

I like all this, makes lots of sense. But where can we find the station specs of the N54 and N27 needles to compare with? The linked sites don't have the Japanese needles listed. Also, my car has an '83 280ZX 2.8 in it. I'm putting SUs back on it, but I can leave the O2 sensor in it. Any one know if there's a way to get a reading of some sort from the factory O2 sensor?

Alternator needs to put out more than that - should be 13.5-14 volts. 12.5 volts is battery reading only (assuming it's fairly well charged).

I plan on it, Dave. The hatch on my car is not so great, so I'll probably try to find an original vented one, rather than add vents to this one.

Yeah, the basics are pretty simple. But there's a lot of details to getting it done right. A fuel pressure regulator is a viable option, if your existing pump is good. But you don't want a cheap regulator that might go bad and start delivering 30 psi to your SUs. The best scenario in that case would be a rich or flooded engine. The worst is a catastrophic engine fire! Better to have a cheap low pressure pump that can't over pressurize. I found one locally that is 4.5 psi for $30 US. Your injection probably has coolant lines running to the manifold and/or throttle body. You may or may not want to connect them to your SU manifolds, depending on your climate. But you'll have to deal with them either way. Either re-plumb them to the manifolds, re-route them or block them off. (I'm blocking mine off.) If your car has an oxygen sensor of EGR in the manifold, you'll have to deal with that as well. The oxygen sensor can be left in place, or you can get a plug for its hole. The EGR (if any) will have to be plugged somehow. You'll need different bolts (or better, studs and nuts) for the intake manifolds. The injection manifold bolts into different holes on the head. Luckily, the holes you need are still there, under the current manifold. The studs or bolts need to be 8mm x 1.25. If you use studs, 40-45mm long is good. You will need to re-route the breather hose from the valve cover, as well as the PCV hose. You will probably need new hoses for those. PCV should go into the balance tube on the manifolds, the breather goes into the air cleaner. You will have to fabricate a choke cable setup. I've got it much easier here, I just need to find and re-install parts that my car originally came with. You will need to start from scratch. The vacuum advance needs to go the fitting on the front carb. In my case, my ignition is partially controlled by the injection brain, so I will need to deal with that as well. I don't think yours is that way, however. I'm not sure about your car, but in my car with the ZX injection there is a slight mismatch with the throttle linkage. The carb linkage won't quite let the injection fall all the way to idle - it holds the throttle open ever so slightly. So to make certain that you are able to open the throttle fully, you may want to get the linkage pieces from the firewall of a carb'd car too. Basic parts list - one pair round-top SUs, center linkage, pair of manifolds (including the balance tube with linkage), heat shield, return springs, fuel pump or regulator, fuel rail, air cleaner(s), choke cable assembly, manifold gasket, 8mm x 1.25 bolts or studs, assorted metric fittings and plugs, fuel, vacuum and coolant hoses, etc. Last thought - my car didn't come from the factory with injection, it was (rather ham-fistedly) installed a few years back with the '83 280ZX engine now in the car. The installation was not done right, and so rather than start over I'm going to yank it and go back to carbs. But had it been done right, or if I had a car that had come with it from the factory, I'd probably fix it rather than replace it. When it's in good shape, there's nothing wrong with the factory injection for a daily driver.

I remember (from my years in the brake repair business) that lots of Japanese vehicles from the '70s and early '80s used similar Tabco and/or Tokico cylinders. The Nissan Patrol was offered in the states only in the late '60s or early '70s. Might be hard to find listings in the parts books. But a cylinder for an all-drum brake vehicle is probably a decent way to go - wheel cylinders take more fluid to operate than discs do. Another possibility might be some Japanese car/truck that came from the factory with four piston calipers. I wonder what kind of cylinder Toyota 4X4s use?

My heater panel was disassembled when I got my car, so thanks to Chris for the fiche pic, it will help. I also noticed that I am missing several of those small clamps, I guess I'm going to have to rummage in the pic-n-pull to find replacements.

I am almost ready to do the same thing, Bruce. I think I've got it all figured out now. Send me a PM, or e-mail me from the link in my 240's web page.

I guess this is why we hash this kind of thing around so much. The carbs we see in the real world don't quite match what the experts tell us to expect. The carbs I acquired to go on 12746 (build date 10/70) have no drains, and I don't know if you'd call my float covers round or square, but they do have 4 ears/screws. The inlet does appear to have a banjo bolt that attaches it, and mine have plastic damper piston caps. Seems to me that the mere absence of the float drains is not a big deal, I seem to see them on eBay fairly regularly. (Unless the same few sets are being sold over and over again! ) The part of that description above that I've never yet seen is the metal damper piston caps. So maybe that is the part that truly identifies the earliest carbs. I dunno... As for my set, it doesn't really matter to me if they're the "correct" carbs for my car. My goal is to have a period looking daily driver. The original engine was already long gone when I got it, and I'm going to swap a manual transmission into it as well. My car will never be original again, so I don't care if they're the right ones, as long as they work. (And they will.) That's not to say that I don't understand the desires of those folks doing bone-stock true restorations - I do, because I've been there too. That's just not my goal for this car. The pictures below are of my (probably) not-so-rare carbs.

Sounds to me as though even the 15/16" master cylinder doesn't have enough volume for calipers of that size. It takes so much fluid to fill all those pistons that you have to press the pedal a long ways.

So the earliest SUs were the ones WITHOUT the float drains? If so, the set I acquired for #12746 are the early ones. My car is not going to be anything special, I just wanted SUs on it instead of the hack-job injection that's on it now. Maybe I should sell my drain-less carbs and buy a different set that's less rare?

The original Tornado mirros were Italian, and made by Vitaloni, the OE supplier to Ferrari, Alfa, Fiat, etc. It appears that Vitaloni still makes that style, but Tornados are now electric only. The non-electric version is now called "Pronto" and is either red or silver painted. (Black is shown on the price list as "out of stock.") http://www.talbotco.com/vitaloni_mirros.html

I think that MSA shows them as available in their catalog, don't know if that's true though...

The brake light feeds (individual left and right) also go through the turn signal switch. A bad contact in the switch could cause the lights to flash with the turn signals but not work for the brakes. Edit - I don't think this is true for later cars, but it is true for 240s. Edit 2 - This is not the case for 240s other than in the US, either.

Good looking project. Hope yours has less rust than mine. Since we're not too far apart geographically, maybe we'll run into one another at some Z meet some day.

No, I don't replace them every time I have them out, only the first time I service them on a new-to-me car where I have no clue to their history. Once replaced that first time, I just service them regularly from there on out.

Welcome to the forum, Tim, and welcome home too! Where are the pictures?

Good to know, Brian. When I get close to doing the tranny swap I'll contact you.

I've been through this before with an earlier restoration. A few additional thoughts: Even a brand new original Nissan part (either NOS or current, if still available) will most likely still need minor finish work prior to painting. When Datsun built the car, the hood was pressed and assembled quite close to the final assembly line. Not so for a replacement part - it has been shipped from Japan on a boat, and then transported by truck at least twice, perhaps several times. No way it is going to arrive as pristine as when it was packaged in Japan, it's going to have small nicks and dimples at best, and could even have gotten slightly twisted somewhere along the way. A really good used one will have a lot shorter trip to you than the new one, and MSA will probably package it as well or better than Nissan would. Any good restoration shop will know where and how to get all the paint stripped from a used body part. They will also know how to prime and seal it prior to painting it. I guess my advice would be to express your concerns to your repair shop, and then trust them if they are comfortable with the part they receive.

In my mind, front wheel bearings are so cheap, I see no reason not to replace them if there is any question about their condition, or if you think that they are not fairly recent. I will replace mine the first time I have the hubs off for any reason - just because.

I just went out to the garage and removed one of my nozzles and looked it over. Found a nice ridge worn in the side about 10-15 mm down from the top. Since new nozzles are in order, ZT is the only choice. Thanks for all the input, folks. I really appreciate it.