michael,i called john myself about a centre for the sunny,i'm definitely going to do this,but will keep in mind your problem.it might be worth the effort to pull the centre out to see what is stopping the axle,could be just a dag on the spider gear splines.& aint it annoying when somebody organises your weekends so you work harder than at your job,& most times it stops you working on the car.

hey,putting a 4age into a 1200 is such a logical thing to do,that i'm surprised more people haven't done it.i think the focus on 'turbo,turbo,mate it's gotta have a turbo' is partly the answer.the only problem i've seen is that to develop the 4age any furthur,it's was much more expensive than for the a15.prices for 4a parts have probably dropped since then,so this is no longer a disadvantage.the only thing available when i looked years ago was for group a,which meant bulk money,ie new crank,new rods,pistons,cams,etc.now you can get 20 valve stuff & 4agze stuff,so it's all easier.

yes,it does run out of revs easily,though it revs to about 7000 on the tacho.i've got a spare 5 speed at the moment,which i'll put into it soon,it's a f5w60l box.the head is an a14 closed chamber non-pollution one.it's also been shaved slightly.with the flat top pistons,& the small combustion chambers,it's got about 11.5:1 compression.even shell optimax 98 octane fuel with wynn's race boost in it doesn't stop it pinging.i need to fit the twin webers & the n12 electronic distributor to it to combat the hiroshima hammer dancing,but as it's my only transport at the moment,i'm putting off all these mods.once i fix up the rust in my sunny panel van,i can do all these things.

at the moment,my sunny has an a14 with an a15 crank in it,a mild cam,the a14 pistons machined down fit the block,too much compression,l16 valves,gx competition twin valve springs,extractors,a 32/36 dgv weber,an a14 4 speed,a h190 diff from a c22 van with a 4.1:1 ratio,200b brakes & struts,a 200b steering arm for more negative camber,adjustable castor arms,14x6 mags,& it is BEIGE.plans include a 1598 cc a15 with 180 hp,270 mm discs & alloy calipers,maybe a 5 speed,rear discs,gazelle swaybars front & rear.it's also got a dash from a sunny coupe for the tacho.i'm going to be doing circuit racing with it,just lapdashes & hillclimbs,& don't plan to paint it as it's such an innocent colour.i haven't got any photos of it yet,but do plan to get an album from the brancos for the photos i have of my sunny,the 1200 sedan i had,the 2 1200 coupes & the 1000 coupe,all of them race cars.i need to let people see them to prove i've actually done all this,i've said so much,on so many things i need to prove it,i think.

ricardo,the funny thing is that in nsw at the moment,you could legally road-register a car like stumpy's with just an engineer's certificate,just like andrew dennis's 1200 is road registered.you can register a sunny with a 2litre turbo motor,or a 2.7 litre non-turbo.at the moment,the locals don't like it when you beat them in a a15 sunny ,just think what they do if you were armed with this.much weeping & crying.

ricardo,you just saved me.the later 120y diff & a b310 sunny diff are both h150's,at least here in australia..get the centre from the a late 120y,look on the crown wheel for the numbers 35:9,which is the ratio of 3.89:1.this should go into the sunny housing,no tailshaft shortening,no hunting for a pa10,no welding.sometimes the obvious has to hit me in the face before i see it.if the numbers are 39:10,it's a h145 so keep looking.sorry theres no easier way than pulling the centre out to check,but something from 77-78 should be the go,so it's check the build plate first.again,from here it looks easy,so i hope this is true. yes,i've seen stumpy's weapon on ozdat,but he's next door in new zealand.looks like an embarassing thing to be blown off by.that was one of the first pictures i downloaded off the net.

tom,hi i'm paul.the a15 valve sizes are from a gregory's for the 120y,which also lists a13's,a14's & A15's.so if i can't trust the gregory's that doesn't surprise me.as for pictures of my 1000 & the 1200's,the scanner is here,i just need learnin up on how to use it.also have the video of me rolling my 1200 at huntley colliery hillclimb,so one day i might figure out how to download that.wayne,as for the gearbox theory,that was past on to me from someone in south aus who made close ratio gearsets for the 1200 boxes.as i personally blown up both 1200 & 120y boxes,i much prefer the a14 sizes.surprisingly,yes,the only a12 box that seemed to last was a 120y 4 speed,but this was in front of an a12,not an a15 like the previous ones.the theory was the needle roller in the 120y box was a limitation.

hokay,here's my best guess,the two 56a boxes are a12 4 speeds,one first with ribs is 1200,the second with no ribs is either 120y or sunny.the second 'reversing light'switch is a top gear switch for emissions.this turned off the vaccum advance to the distributor in any gear but 4th,note the different spade connections so you can't get them mixed up with the reversing light switch.the third box is just a 4 speed that is worn in the shift mechanisms,this allows the shifting rods to go into a position where there isn't really a gear.have been caught once or twice myself in wreckers with this one,but a quick check of the actual box put me right.the gearbox is still alright to use,just don't try to flat change into 5th.the way to tell an a14 gearbox from an a12 is the distance between the bellhousing( the part that bolts to the engine) & the front bulkhead of the gearbox (the part the throw out bearing housing bolts to).this is longer on the a14 boxes,4 or 5 speed,resulting in a clutch fork with a right angle at the end.if the clutch fork is there,this is another quick way of checking what type of gearbox you have.yet another way to check is to just pick the thing up.the a14s are heavier enough that you notice the difference in effort.i've been told the best gearbox to use of the two a12 boxes is the 1200,as it has a stronger bearing were the cluster gear sits in the front bulkhead,not a needle roller like in the 120y or sunny(b310).i've been told these early boxes will take 200 hp,though i've never seen this myself.

ric,if you go through ratdat.com to the uk datsun owners club site www.datsunworld.com,there are pictures of a10 nissans,called variously 160j's,violets or austars.these might point you somewhere closer to yourself for what to call these things,& where to get a diff housing.have been thinking about this all day,& this is all i can suggest.note that the name violet is used for more than 1 car,it's also used for the 710 between 74 & 78.good luck in your quest,& by the way,the dreams i had were real weird last night,all about race meetings that i missed racing in for one reason or another,can't remember details,just be mightily pissed off.there are also some nice b310's on eddies site,(i'd love that 81 2 door sedan,personally,do you think he might swap a 78 b310 panel van with rust for it),as well as on nissanworld.paul.

i think i got it now,the 160b is a p610,known in aus as a 180b.these diffs won't fit,not without lots of fabrication.maybe they didn't sell the a10 in portugal after all,but i can remember seeing photos of them being rallied in europe as violets.hate to say it,but maybe the brothers branco can help,being overthere.i hate it,i've probably confused you no end.anyway,it's past my bedtime here,i'm going to go to sleep,maybe the answer will come to me in the morning.i'm not giving up,just calling time out.good night riclage,talk to you tomorrow.