robox

I am working on my Z this winter, but last winter I rebuilt a motorcycle. I got much more "out there" with the design on my bike than I ever will on the car, and I spent lots of time in photoshop tweaking my ideas. I understand that not everyone reading this will have an interest in a motorcycle build thread, but the entire thread, including photoshop "mock-ups," is in the Honda XL600 link below, in my signature. And yes, I agree with the previous poster who commended your good photoshop skills. Cheers

Thanks for that. Good link. Mine definitely look similar to those. The only question I've got now is... what calipers are mine exactly? The numbers embossed on mine don't even come close to the codes mentioned in that link. Mine: 4 5P 11 Mentioned in the link: S12+8, S12W, etc. Only important, I guess, so that I can figure out what pads to buy, and rebuild parts if necessary. Cheers, Christian

I bought a pretty beat-up 260Z from a friend as a parts car. I bought it just on the strength of a few smart-phone pictures for $150. One of the selling points (in his mind, anyway) was that the car has what he calls "high performance" brakes. Now that I have the car, the only thing I can find on it that might conceivably be high performance is the front calipers. Does anyone recognize these? Any advice on whether they are worth swapping onto my '71 240? Thank you!

Thanks for clarifying, Madkaw. My ideas for approaching the implementation of a Subaru LSD R180 don't seem to be going anywhere, anyway, due to the lack of axle shafts in New Mexico junkyards and on ebay. Also, the Canadian seller of Nissan 3.9 R180s is out of stock for a few months. I guess I'm going to start looking for one out of a Nissan pickup in the meantime. In any case, no matter what happens, my thinking that this swap is something I would do "within days" has been modified to "within weeks or months". Oh well, there's plenty of other work I SHOULD be doing anyway.

You know, it's interesting... I went back and read through JohnC's thread, post by post, and for whatever reason no one in that entire thread engaged in the same kind of discouraging dissuasion of innovative thinking which is in evidence in the preceding post. I suppose that in retrospect its a good thing that no one did, given the fact that by all accounts he has engineered and brought to market what appears to be an excellent product, or if someone did in fact discourage him, that he chose not to listen. I agree that the Subaru diff is probably a nice upgrade (finding a new way to swap it in is exactly what I am contemplating, after all), and that JohnC's flanges look like a great way to go. Buying a set of those flanges is an option that I might even end up exercising at the end of the day. In the meantime, however, I will continue to mull over whether there is another, more affordable way to do it. Thanks.

The seller is being very cool, and is covering the return shipping. As I do my real work today, my head is submerged in trying to figure out how to make a Subaru 3.9 R180 LSD work for cheaper....

Yes... as I mentioned in Zedyone's thread, I eventually figured it out. I re-read his whole thread last night trying to wrap my head around the issue, and the spline count difference is not mentioned in that thread (unless I missed it). I guess its one of those bits of info that everyone around here knows so well that it's just not talked about. I eventually figured it out by reading the thread over on hybridz where the Wolf Creek flanges were developed. Thanks!

Well I received the Maxima differential. It's a good thing I popped off the rear cover to inspect the ring and pinion before I did anything else to it, because the ratio WAS NOT as advertised. It's a 3.54 (39:11). Now I have to send this heavy thing back on my own dime (I'm going to petition eBay to pay return shipping, we'll see how that goes). So I am back to square one. I've been thinking about the Subaru STI diff swap that Zedyone is doing.... I just posted in his thread this same thought.... why bother spending $500 for the Wolf Creek output flanges when it seems the output flanges from the outgoing R180 could just be used? Or a yoke with a splined shaft...? Are the spline counts different?

To revisit an earlier part of this thread.... Couldn't the $500 for the Wolf Creek flange-shafts be saved by either A) installing splined yokes, as Blue mentions here, and then replacing U-joints to mount up the rest of the 240 half-shafts, or for that matter just re-using the flange-shafts from the original R180 that is being replaced? Even if opening the diffs were required to swap in the threaded buttons, it seems like a good way to save a bundle of $$. Am I missing something here? That seems like the obvious and cheap solution. EDIT: Never mind... I just figured it out. Datsun spines are 25 tooth, Subaru are 27. Bummer.

Yes.. that is a super-informative link. Thanks Madkaw. Looks like a fun operation. As I am also a machinist, I'm going to at least investigate the options of doing a little machine work to see if I can leave intact the R180 3.36 that is currently in my car, thereby leaving it in a sell-able state. I will know more when I get the parts in hand. We will see. Cheers, Christian

Cuz I'm impulsive of course! And because I trust that I CAN work out the details! Anyhow, I did a bunch of reading of other older threads and learned that it's no big deal. Just gotta open the two diffs and swap a few parts, specifically the "threaded buttons" which permit the use of the OEM 240 halfshafts. No idea what those buttons are at this time, but I am sure I will know soon.... Looks like a good link... I will read it. Thanks!

I went out in the 240 for the first time, really, since installing the 5 speed and fixing the speedometer and tachometer. It was very informative. The car definitely felt anemic until about 2750 rpm or so. And in 5th gear, I couldn't really even get it up to that range, unless I was going somewhat downhill. I promptly went on eBay and bought the Maxima differential (R180 with 3.70 gears). The price was more within my range than most of these other options. My question, for anyone who might have the answer or some input, is what sort of challenges am I looking at as far as getting the half-shafts to work? Here is a picture of the Maxima diff I just bought: As you can see the U-joints are quite different from what the Z has. I just haven't worked on enough cars yet to know if this is going to be a lot of work. But it's gotta be doable. For what it's worth, I do have a set of half-shafts sitting around from a 260Z parts car I got recently.

Thanks guys... tlorber, I just saw an R180 with 3.70 gears from a Maxima on eBay. The driveshafts look different... well specifically the U-joints (or CV joints, not sure what the proper term would be) look different. How much work was required to make that diff work in the Z? 3.70 seems like it would be a good ratio. Thanks

Hey Zedyone- No.. actually I did not see your thread... HA HA! I guess that's because when I started my little thread I was just thinking along the lines of asking for advice about gearing options. The topic of swapping in a Subaru diff had not yet crossed my mind, so I wasn't looking for that kind of thing. Anyway I just read your whole thread. Tons of great info in there! I can only assume that people are willing to drop something like $1000 to do that swap because of the limited slip. I agree with one of the posters on there that $500 just for the output flanges is a tough pill to swallow. For me personally, limited slip is not worth that much $$. I basically just want a different gear ratio in the rear end, and a $600 R180 that will bolt up easily is more like what I am thinking. At this point, though, I need to drive my car some more to see how much I really care. I am going to be more interested in freeway driving than burning rubber, so the 3.36 I've got now might be just the ticket. Or who knows, maybe the 3.54, which seems a bit easier to get one's hands on, might be a good solution for me, given my driving preferences. Thanks again for that good thread. I gotta go back and re-read it to try to figure out what the "RT mount" is... Cheers

Thanks guys. Mitchell I see that you have a 3.9 R180. You say you got that out of the front of a pickup? Cool. There are 3.9 R180's on eBay that are coming out of Subarus.... they look similar to the Datsun variety except for the output flanges... there aren't any flanges! Could those be made to work? The truth is that I have driven my 240 a grand total of about 3 or 4 miles since installing the 5-speed trans, so I am not sure how much the 3.36 gears are going to bother me. But what I don't want is to be out of the L28 powerband in 5th gear, needing to downshift to 4th to go faster or whenever I encounter a hill of any sort. Starting to take the Canadian R180 3.9 option a little more seriously, as options for this diff seem slim....