How many companies made Stromberg sidedrafts?

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fdcg27

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Zenith Stromberg sidedrafts were common on emissions era Brit cars since the SUs that had been used before were apparently not capable of meeting later standards. My MGB has a single Stromberg sidedraft, for example, in place of the earlier twin SUs.
I had an old Mercedes 230 which had a Deutsche Vergasser Stromberg and performance oriented Datsuns had Hitachi Strombergs.
These all seemed to be pretty simple devices and would work well as long as you kept oil in the damper chamber and as long as the diaphragm was intact, or at least that was my experience with them.
Did any other companies build local versions of this classic carburetor?
 
The ZS sidedraughts were originally designed to work around the SU patents. I know Nissan used license built ZS as well as SU's with theirs lasting into the emissions control era, but with lots of additional plumbing as did the ZS's. Vacuum breaker capsules anyone??

I always had good luck w/ my ZS's (and SU's, Webers, Solex....) but I did always give them the attention they needed and I suspect many in the US didn't. That said, since I have slimmed down the British content in my fleet I am not sure I miss the required effort.

I thought someone, Burton maybe, was making "new" ZS's but I cant speak to them.
 
I bought a set of Nissan Hitachi SU clones, as used on the SSS Bluebird, for my 510. Good carbs. Google AI says Nissan/Hitachi didn't do a Stromberg variant. If you have a link for more info, please share.
 
Nessism1 said:
I bought a set of Nissan Hitachi SU clones, as used on the SSS Bluebird, for my 510. Good carbs. Google AI says Nissan/Hitachi didn't do a Stromberg variant. If you have a link for more info, please share.
Click to expand...
I could have sworn that Mikuni made a diaphragm type carb at one point, but I'm probably wrong. Good excuse to do some research over an Old Fashioned tonight.
 
wings&wheels said:
The ZS sidedraughts were originally designed to work around the SU patents. I know Nissan used license built ZS as well as SU's with theirs lasting into the emissions control era, but with lots of additional plumbing as did the ZS's. Vacuum breaker capsules anyone??

I always had good luck w/ my ZS's (and SU's, Webers, Solex....) but I did always give them the attention they needed and I suspect many in the US didn't. That said, since I have slimmed down the British content in my fleet I am not sure I miss the required effort.

I thought someone, Burton maybe, was making "new" ZS's but I cant speak to them.
Click to expand...
Ya know, carburetors in general were never all that much trouble.
Avoid making stupid adjustments and you might need to tear them down after 100K or so, for a thorough cleaning and gasket/o-ring/diaphragm replacement, having first recorded all of the adjustments under which they were running fine, and you'd then be rewarded with a notably smoother idle and better running overall.
FI is great and rarely gives trouble, but when it does one wishes for the simplicity that a carburetor brought.
As long as the owner did nothing stupid in adjusting any aspect that could be adjusted, a carb is a passive device that will reliably meter fuel until the sun ends its main sequence.
Think of all of our OPEs that never seem to have troubles other than from years of disuse.
 
Here's mine. '74.5 TR6. Fresh rebuild.
1000010687.webp
 
The CD Stromberg came about because SU refused to supply carbs for the Triumph 2000, probably a supply issue rather than being grumpy as the TR used SU's. Triumph went to Stromberg to supply the carb they needed. Unlike a motorcycle vacuum carb, the SU and CD Stromberg had no emulsion tube for the main jet and no idle circuit, no problem for when they were developed but when emission rules came out they were very dirty. They got complicated with bypass idle setups and other things to clean them up, but were doomed. The last of the SU's used in the Montero had a computer controlled stepper motor to adjust the main jet while running.

SU carbs are still made, don't know about the CD Stromberg. The SU is a far superior carb.
 
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