In response to several queries:
Yes, Moss still sells it but they have it listed as being 2 hours 40 min.
Part No. is 211-035. Price is about $40 or so.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven R. Hemphill" <hemphill@teknett.com>
To: "datsunmike" <datsunmike@nyc.rr.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: A CARB NAMED SU
> Do you know if this video is still available?
>
> Steve Hemphill
> hemphill@teknett.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "datsunmike" <datsunmike@nyc.rr.com>
> To: "Steve & Virginia" <svslowmg@netzero.net>; "Rich Glass"
> <dpg171@aol.com>; "Rich Mooers MGCC" <mgzabc@optonline.net>; "Mike
Jennings"
> <datsit@hotmail.com>; "Michael A. Unger" <munger@vims.edu>; "Joe Curto"
> <joecurto@aol.com>; "Bill Strohm" <wstrohm@socal.rr.com>; "Datsun Roadster
> List" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 5:34 PM
> Subject: A CARB NAMED SU
>
>
> > This is a story written by my favorite columnist, Peter Egan, in Road &
> > Track many years ago. It came from a collection of his columns printed
by
> > Road & Track. I highly recommend buying it as he's truly a car guy with
a
> > great sense of humor and always strikes a chord which is familiar to any
> car
> > crazy nut. I frequently laugh and smile when reading this book.
> >
> > I dedicate this story to all those with SUs :)
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > A CARB NAMED SU
> >
> > Last Thursday just when I was getting my life pretty much under control,
> > Associate Art Director Larry Crane walked into my office with a video
> > cassette tucked under his arm and said, "How would you like to see a two
> and
> > a half hour movie on rebuilding and tuning SU carburetors?"
> >
> > "Two and a half hours of film on SUs? Who on earth would do such a
thing?"
> >
> > "My oId friend Lawrie Alexander," Larry said. "He's the sales manager at
> > Moss Motors, the MG specialists up in Goleta. He's a transplanted Brit
> who's
> > been working on English cars for years. Would you like to see the
movie?"
> >
> > "Love to," I said, not joking. "I'll take it home tonight." Now I
realize
> > that most people, faced with a 15O-minute film in which the principal
> > characters are a veteran British car mechanic and two carburetors on a
> > workbench, would probably become slightly despondent, or even turn nasty
> and
> > unpredictable, possibly injuring themselves or others. But in my case,
> Larry
> > found a ready made audience. I've spent only slight exaggeration here
> about
> > half my life fiddling with SU carburetors and I was genuinely interested
> in
> > soaking up a little added insight from a real expert.
> >
> > For those of you who have not had the pleasure of owning British cars,
> with
> > attendant weekends spent beneath the bonnets thereof, SU carburetors are
> > (were) the standard fuel/air mixing devices on Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs,
> > Healeys, etc, from time immemorial. SU stands for Skinner's Union, named
> > after George and Thomas Skinner, a pair of brothers who were in the
> > shoe-manufacturing business and invented this style of carburetor (with
> its
> > original leather- bellows arrangement) in 1905.
> >
> > SUs are nice-Iooking carburetors, their most prominent feature being the
> > bell-jar shaped aluminum dashpot containing a piston and needle that
rise
> > and fall with manifold vacuum, changing mixture with engine demand. In
> rows
> > of two or more, they have a way of making the most mundane engine look
> > relatively exotic, and it may have been the sight of those twin or
triple
> > air cleaners under the hood that caused so many American youths and
their
> > elders to plunk down money for their first English roadsters. It
certainly
> > worked on me. Multiple SUs probably sold as many cars in this country as
> > wire wheels and bucket seats did.
> >
> > Elegantly simple in principle and design, SUs wear their mechanical
hearts
> > on their sleeves, so to speak; all three of their moving parts (piston,
> > throttle and choke) are visible with the air cleaners removed, and their
> > exposed workings give them the vintage look of a piece of 19th century
lab
> > equipment, or possibly some early navigational instrument, like an
> > astrolabe - if an astrolabe could be made to hold gasoline and Ieak.
> >
> > Though the SU carburetor is a pretty good design, it is not without its
> > faults, some of which may be directly responsible for so many of those
> > American youths mentioned above not owning British roadsters today.
> Throttle
> > shafts wear in their bushings, causing the engine to suck too much air
> > through the carbs, and, meanwhile, brass needles wear out and oval their
> > jets, as if to compensate. The real Achilles' heel, however, is the
> throttle
> > and choke linkage between two or more SUs. This system of rods, shafts,
> > clamps, levers and fulcrums is subject to wear, slippage and- worst of
all
> > maladjustment by the owner. In fact, the really basic problem with every
> SU
> > carburetor and its Rube Goldberg throttle linkage is that it offers the
> > amateur mechanic more opportunity for doing The Wrong Thing than any
> > invention since the 4-masted clipper ship.
> >
> > When I worked as a mechanic, it was amazing to see the variations of SU
> > carburetor maladjustment that came through the door. Air cleaners
mounted
> > upside down, jets dropped to full rich or screwed up to full lean, rear
> > carbs disconnected from the fronts, pistons frozen in theirdashpots
> > and-strangest of all-piston dampers filled with STP rather than ATF or
> 20-wt
> > oil. Many people thought this was a competition trick.
> >
> > They were wrong. And this is where Lawrie Alexander and his
> > two-and-a-half-hour video come in. Alexander stands at a workbench in
> front
> > of the camera and calmly, thoroughly explains how SUs work, shows you
how
> to
> > rebuild all four styles of them (you can fast forward through those
types
> > you don't care about) and then explains how to tune them on the car. The
> > amazing thing is he makes rebuilding SUs look so appealing and simple,
> > you're half tempted to go out and buy another British car, just to try
out
> > his good advice and to get even for all those years you hadn't the
> faintest
> > idea what you were doing. The video costs $39.95, plus $3.00 for
shipping,
> > from Milaw Productions, PO Box 742, Goleta, Calif. 93117. If you own an
> > English car, or even a Volvo with SUs, it'll be the best $42.95 you ever
> > spent. Okay, that may be an overstatement; I can't speak for sailors on
> > shore leave.
> >
> > Students of high technology may object that using a VCR to rebuild an SU
> is
> > overkill, like using laser holographs to teach the lost art of roof
> > thatching. They are right, of course, and, sadly the SU is going the way
> of
> > roof thatch. It is a symbol in a way, of British cars. People who
dislike
> > SUs on sight or can't be bothered fiddling with them will eventually be-
> > come disenchanted with English machinery in general, while those who
> delight
> > in tinkering, adjusting and setting right will find in the SU all of the
> > charm, texture and maddeningly eccentric logic that make the English car
> > worth troubling with, for those who understand. Or, until now, thought
> they
> > did.
> >
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