I've dismantled the rear suspension on my 1970 240Z and noticed that the two plates that attached between the diff. mounting member and the transverse link mounting member (see photo) are different shapes. The Nissan section assembly drawing shows that both plates should look the same as the one on the left ?

The rectangular one on the right looks original to me - is it correct and if so is there a reason for the two shapes ? By the way I forgot to note which was on the driver side and which was on the passenger side. Any advice would be welcome before I commit to shot-blasting and powder coating. Thanks, Dave

No clue, however I do not think it would matter which one went left or right

on my friends 280Z they were the same, maybe Nissan fixed that difference in later Z cars;) (joke)!

or one of them is not original? coz they can get cracked sometimes, that friend had both cracked at the bended area!

the ones I saw were similar to the one on the right (both) but maybe they should be like yours, who knows!? I don't:)

anyway, good luck..

The originals are the same and like the one on the left. There is no clearance problem so it really should not matter which one goes on which side.

I think the straight one is from a later car. Wonder if yours got hit on that side at some point and that part was replaced???

I have both of my transverse mounting links off of my car at the moment (1978 260z) and both are the same as the right one. So I would think that it is from a later car.

Cheers

Ian

Thanks guys. I conclude then that the one of the left is an original (and both should be like it) and the one on the right is from a later cars but it does not matter if I re-use both because there is no clearance problem, which was one of my concerns. I've got a feeling that at some point the diff was changed because the gearbox went from auto to manual and at this time it was noticed that the right one was either corroded or bent so it was replaced with the later design.

On a different point, I've just spent a few hours getting the rubber insulators out from each end of the rear diff mounting member by drilling through the rubber bodies and sawing througn the casings and splitting. They seem to have been 'pressed' into position as they are flanged at both ends and could not be knocked out using a pipe and hammer as suggested by Mr Humble (excellent book by the way). The new ones I got are only flanged at the one end as per the microfiche assembly drawing 92-1 and should be easy to install (famous last words !). Presume the ones I removed are an early design which was superceded to improve/simplify production.

I've tried to get another one of the earlier supports (shown on the left in the photo above) in the UK without luck. Could someone in the US get one and post to me in the UK using USPS please ? All costs paid of course. Thanks.

Come on guys. Help a poor limey !

Can't help you with a replacement, but I can confirm that on my '70 240Z, they both look like the pic on the left in the first post, and on my '78 280Z, they both look like the pic on the right.

I have several of the rectangular variety-they came off of '71-78 cars.

Will