Zedyone_kenobi

Well before I wave the flag of victory I want to take her our for a much longer run. I want to see how she does on the long runs and on the track But right now I am far more worried about the wheel shimmy

Okay well I left a beautiful set of 11s on the road this morning. Got up early, took the day off and finished up on the Z! HUZZAH The puller did the trick I am happy to say. THE rest was just bolting up parts and she was off. LEt me tell you though. The sound that thing made backing up the first time was NOT a good one. IT sounded rough, like the LSD was not happy to be spinning under load or something. NO idea what it was, but I drove her gingerly around the block Just listening. My diff whine that I had for ever slowly vanished. The thing runs quiet now as far as I can tell. Backing up into the garage was silent as a mouse. So I looked for leaks and took her back out again, this time determined to break it. IF she is going to break let it be close to the house right. Pulled out on the highway and just floored it in 1st. The car jumped sideways and pulled like a damn train. leaving two lines behind me. Yeah… um that was fun. Those 3.90 gear really wake up that L28. She gets into her rev range very quickly now. I shifted into 2nd and 3rd very hard and I do think I have a clunk now. I may have not adjusted my RT mount right, or I cut too much off and it is the metal cross member on the RT mount. NOt a big deal. lowering the front of the diff is hardly an issue. So over all I am thrilled. Only now I have mysteriously developed a wicked shimmy in the front end. :ogre::ogre: I thought it could be from the tires sitting so long, but it has never been right since I took it to Nissan to have an alignment done. So a more thorough investigation is needed.

Yeah, it would seem a puller is in my near future. I may just go buy one. I have needed one many times. Lets just hope I can get one in there with the DIFF installed.

madkaw I got the pinion nut on the front of the diff off easy enough with my impact. However, the Yoke that is splined onto it is not budging an inch. Is there a secondary retention method on that thing, or is the yoke on the front of the diff that the drive shaft bolts to, really that tight!! I have had a sledge and screwdriver on it, and it did not even think about coming lose. I really do not want to pull the diff back out, but did you use a puller? OR did your front yoke just slide off.

I totally missed it… but then again, I did not go to hybrid and read a word before I tried this…I just new the R180 was an easy swap and I figured I would wing it! I just have to swap out flanges, but I think I may have to do it quirky, as I already filled the diff to the appropriate level… Oooops.

MIxed bag today. I got the drive shafts into the Diff, they literally just snap in. Almost too easy, but I a sure they are right, and then I managed to wiggle that bad boy up in there and up against the RT mount, which if I am perfectly honest took a few blows of 'convincing' to get to line up. But I squeezed it in there. I am without a doubt sure that that diff WILL not move, ever. LIke never ever. So then all went very quickly. Starting assembling things and everything is going VERY smoothly…. UNTIL nobody mentioned that the driveshaft coupler on my driveshaft does not have at the same bolt pattern as the STI Diff. I took my impact and took off the huge nut holding the yoke on to the Datsun Diff and it came off with about 10 seconds of impact beating it down. Then it hit me. What if the STI diff has a different number of splines. Tricky problem if my Datsun Yoke will not thread onto the splines of the STI diff. EDIT: Did some Net digging and apparently the input yoke (or companion flange) for the driveshaft is interchangeable between the Datsun and STI. HUZZAH, I do not have to take it back out.

That is an interesting thought Guy. But I was under the impression I would need to get different half shafts as well? I may just sell the Perrin Diff and use the stock diff cover and call it a day. Shame, loved the bling.

Well there is always this option

You are saying I do not NEED that curved bar. I would think it would provide some sort of useful stiffening. Or else why would Datsun engineers put it there. I know the diff is identical, but my new Perrin Cover sticks out further than my OEM cover did. It may hit the curved bar in question... This may require some investigation.. I If you get rid of that curved bar, then what holds the bearings? without that bar, the curved sections would be missing. I need to get back under the car again to see what is going on.

Oh Oh, I am starting to think I leaped before I looked... Looking at this image from wolf creek racing, it would appear that the bar that joins the lower support for the rear A-arms may interfere with my shwanky new diff cover.. in the words of yo semitie sam. RAzzle Frazzle fragget

That pic is spot on bud, thanks! I will check out the other RT mount threads to get an average, but your picture is what I remember!

My seals and my rear diff cover came in today. Just waiting on some hardware and we can start zipping this puppy up. ON quick question, do you have to trim the bump stop on the RT mount any? I recall some folks having to shorten it a bit. It would be good to know BEFORE I bolt it in and have the diff suspended over my head.

Well I will have a 4 speed with 3.90 gears soon, but looking at that webpage walter posted, I think i will want a 5 speed in less than 12 months.

Well I failed to get a hold of you as kid things have been ruling my time. Well that and I decided to yank out my diff as well:) Good to see so much great progress. I am still on for lunch at your cafe. Maybe next friday as I have off that day. Would love to hear more about your Z. Keep up the great work!

Oh I will reuse my old ones, they cleaned up nice, but I was just shocked at the price MSA wants, I would always call courtesy before ordering something like that.

Well I am well on the way to finishing this. I have all my seals coming in, and I am almost done tracking down some new shiney hardware. I polished the plates on the side with a wire brush and painted the new diff with some POR chassis black for presentation purposes. I am still cleaning up parts in the spare time. On a side note, has anybody priced the bolts that connect the half shaft to the hub on the rear wheel? EACH bolt is 12.57 at MSA! EACH BOLT!! You need 8 of them!!!! I am going to have to invest in a CAD plate kit from Eastwood soon. I like my hardware to be perfect when it goes together. I have a rare phobia against dirty threads... called impropertorqueaphobia

Well then number 2 it is!!

need some advice on what kind of mount to use with the new diff Here are my options: 1) Buy a new strap and go back to OEM. Motorsport sells replacement straps that will probably work. 2) Go with the RT mount with the bump stop on top and the OEM on bottom 3) Go with the RT mount with the GM motor mount option that has no lower mount (this one I need some help on) Figure OEM would work, and I never really had a clunk to speak of. But I would be interested in opinions. Also if anybody knows the mount needed for the RT to work as a standalone let me know THanks Blue! I got the studs out of the other diff without any problems. I removed the flange from the OEM diff and then set it on a solid surface and with a 5 lb maul just tapped out the old studs. They pressed into the Wolf Creek flanges without any fuss what so ever. They went in actually very easy. Probably some permanent set on the studs, but they will work as they are.

I think Blue is having a side bar not exactly on this subject. But related The OEM Datsun half shafts should bolt up to the Wolf Creek output flanges just fine. I have not checked the fit, but I am not too worried about it. They should fit, if not I will deal with it. This is all about rolling with the punches and not making a square peg fit into a round hole. The right decision will not always be the easy or cheap one. But I will tackle my half shafts after I get my Diff done up the way I like it. I have just been cleaning up parts with a wire wheel and gathering some hardware…

Okay I double checked and yes Madkaw, you are 100% correct, they should just pop in with some persuasion. I just spent 15 minutes trying to see if I could polish the diff cover.. Um… it is going to take some time! But all is well. Found some new bolts and washers and lock washers to install. Just need about 2x as many. Will have to hit up some hardware places for metric CAD plated bolts.. Dont laugh at me!!

That seems to be the trick, but what worries me now is the new output shafts require some kind of c-clip or ring to hold them in. The R180 as packaged by Datsun does not have these rings. Now I may have to source some.

Took the day off to have some free time on what must be the most lovely day of the year so far in the Houston Area. Fired a pot of coffee, turned on my favorite country station, and slowly began taking the factory diff out of the car. Well less than 2 hours later… I was done. I sprayed some simple green on the OEM diff and then drug it out into the sun to compare it to the STI diff. I would wager more people will want to see the comparison of the two… so without further ado: Next think want to do is pull off the rear cover and the side covers off the STI diff and give them a good cleaning. The rubber seals where the output shafts contacts look to be a bit rough. I may have to go by Subaru parts to get more rubber seals so they do not leak. They may be the same as the Datsun ones, I do not know until I pull the sides off. Will probably get new bolts or send mine off to get cleaned and plated. Not sure yet. Everything unbolted perfectly fine. I had to cut the old Diff strap off to get it out as my exhaust was too big and would not let the diff crossmember move out of the way. But this may give me a chance to finally use the RT Diff mount I have had for 2 years. Well that is enough work for now. I have to start looking to get parts cleaned. Then I can make a run to the storage unit and get my spare diff and pull the half shafts. Anybody have any advice on puling the OEM halfshafts out?

THanks madkaw, I was about to look up what kind of LSD is in the 2004 unit

No, I have a spare R180 Diff in my storage unit I plan to take the studs off. I will leave this Diff untouched as it came with the car. So I will rob the studs from that diff. Figured I would save a few bucks doing it that way. I have been wanting an arbor press for a while anyway, it can have so many uses. So I figured why not pick one up.

Studs that go into the half shafts.