R180 or R200

Hi guys pretty new to the Zed scene, however loving every minute of driving my 77 260 2 seater. I have heard rumors that my model came out with an R200 but don't know how to tell the diff? Can anyone help? It was built by nissan motor company if that helps.

Cheers Scott.

All 260Z's sold in Oz had R200 standard. 240Z's had R180.

One way to tell the difference - distance between centre of bottom 2 rear cover bolts in R180 is 80mm, on an R200 its close to 90mm

Hi,

You can also tell by taking a look at where the drive shafts are bolted to the diff. The R180 on the 240 has 4 bolts securing the flange on the Universal joint to the diff and the R200 on the 260 only has a single bolt.

Warren

The R200 appears offset too, as one side of the casing appears almost flat all the way to the back of the diff, whereas the other side has a pronounced protrusion. This I find is the easiest way, once you've seen both.

In the image below, R200 is on the left. There are one or two more photos at http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/6212/diffswap/diffswap.htm if you need to see from the front, but for mine the photo below is most helpful.

You can also tell by taking a look at where the drive shafts are bolted to the diff. The R180 on the 240 has 4 bolts securing the flange on the Universal joint to the diff and the R200 on the 260 only has a single bolt.

You are correct about the 240Z style R180, but - if I understand you correctly - your description of the 260Z style R200 is wrong (no offence). This is the way it works:

- 260Z R200 uses short, splined 'stub' axles which literally snap into the diff centre using a circlip arrangement (in fact this arrangment has carried through to S15, R32, Z32, etc). There is no bolt holding them in. Where the half-shafts attach to the stub axle there are 4 studs with nuts and lock washers.

- 240Z R180 uses similar stub axles BUT has a single long retaining bolt for each stub axle (ie up the middle of each stub axle). Again at the half-shaft end there are 4 studs + nuts, etc for attching the half shaft.

In fact the half-shaft stud pattern is the same between 240Z and 260Z which is why it's possible to bolt an R200 into a 240Z without changig the halfshafts (and similarly for R180 into 260Z) although there are other things needed, of course.

There are other arrangements for half-shaft attachment in other cars that use R180. For example:

- 240K/C210 Skylines use a single bolt to attach each halfshaft, but in those cars there's no 4-bolt flange to attach the halfshaft to the diff. Instead, the uni joint mount (or half of it at least) is integral to the halfshaft - effectively the stub axle and halfshaft + uni's are an 'assembly'.

- Cars that use CV's for the halfshaft (eg R30 Skyline) use a clip in arrangment for the stub axle (like 260Z), which, again is integral with the shaft itself.

Hope that helps

Thanks heaps for everyones help, it turns out it is an R200, which has saved me a fair bit of money. Heres a pic of the car:

Car looks very clean mate.....

280ZX's also use CV type hafl shafts.

Ok, now I'm up to LSDs. I have an R33 R200 housing with a Cusco RS 2 way, can anyone tell me or even hint as to whether the centre will fit my R200 or am I looking at a custom job to put the whole diff in?

What other slippy's are other poeple using?

centre will fit. Will need spacers for crownwheel to carrier bolts, as i believe in early (ie. Longnose) R200s these bolts were 12mm, but in later models were 10mm. Could be the other way round though.

The other issue is I don't believe the 260z stub axle splines will line up with the R33 side gears in the carrier, which means either custom fab stub axles (to retain zed type halfshafts), or a CV conversion... and with an RB25 in there, the CV conversion is probably on the cards anyway?

If you jump on HybridZ there is plenty of talk about fitting shortnose R200 (as in R32/33 S13/14/15) centres into longnose diffs. I believe the general consensus was retain your existing crownwheel and pinion, bolt the centre in, and do a CV conversion, but there were other options mentioned as well I believe, although it can be confusing over there sometimes (Damn Americans!)

Well here it is, anyone that says that you can't use an R33 centre with a longnose hasn't tried hard enough. I finally got to drive my car after months of waiting for the suspension to be finally finished. We took the diff (whilst the struts were being assembled) to Southern diffs in Canberra and they got the stock stub axles to work with the Cusco 2 way. The acceleration difference between it is just awsome, it squats and shoots out of corners due to not having the inside wheel spinning due to power. :twisted: As for the suspension, holy crap, it outhandles my friends 200kg lighter Toyota sprinter which is set up for racing. But i will explain what happened there in the next few weeks.

Now for the CV conversion.

All 260Z's sold in Oz had R200 standard. 240Z's had R180.

I think you might find that early auto 260z's had R180 diffs, or so i've been told.

Both the 2 260Z 2+2's AUTO's I've owned have had the 3.54 R200 fitted.

In fact the half-shaft stud pattern is the same between 240Z and 260Z which is why it's possible to bolt an R200 into a 240Z without changing the halfshafts (and similarly for R180 into 260Z) although there are other things needed' date=' of course.[/quote']

 

Perhaps you could clarify what you've just said Lambs?

Because the R200 has an offset housing, the left R200 half-shaft is shorter then the other.

I believe it's quite impossible to do what you mentioned above.

Although I am open to correction

Perhaps you could clarify what you've just said Lambs?

Because the R200 has an offset housing' date=' the left R200 half-shaft is shorter then the other.[/quote']

 

There's no need for a clarification, the halfshafts are interchangeable between 240Z and 260Z......I wouldn't say it if I hadn't done it (many, many times).

I think you might find that early auto 260z's had R180 diffs' date=' or so i've been told.[/quote']

 

You've been told wrong....all 260Z's had R200. Early 260Z autos did had a unique R200 ratio (3.3 or thereabouts), which is quite rare and sought after for V8 conversions.

is it possible to swap 240Z's R180 with a R200? is it a straight swap or a lot of custom modifications need to be done?

cheers, Vlad

lambs sorry buddy your wrong, i also had an early 260z 2+2 that had an r180. very uncommon but correct halfshafts for the diff also, not a swap in as moust bar had to be changed also when i popped an r200 in ages ago sold the car with the noisy r180 in the back hatch so new owner had both incase they needed it for some unknown reason. also listed in the microfische i was advised on another forum!!!!

nato.

****yea prety much a staright swap will need the r200 moustache bar though as the hole centres and dia differ.(or slot and open up the r180 bar and flip it around, but r200 mous bar is easy enough to get for $5)

lambs sorry buddy your wrong' date='[/quote']

 

Sorry 'matel', but I'm not....and have Nissan Oz documentation to prove it, not to mention 30+ years experience with Z. Ever stopped to think that the R180 was swapped in at some stage in its 30-odd year life ??......very common you know. I'll bet the forum was in another country (US no less), which means squat as far as Oz is concerned.

come on, guys, it doesnt matter when R200 was introduced... as long as we can get our hands on it and swap a proper LSD in it, we are good. :lol:

Both the 2 260Z 2+2's AUTO's I've owned have had the 3.54 R200 fitted.

They could have been swapped, as people like to do.

What years were they?

I've heard even the auto 280zx had an R180 from the factory.

Info is from Oz Dat forums.

Both were post '75 cars iirc.

I thought all 260Z's would have had a R200, except maybe early '74 cars since nissan seemed to have had a habit of using up surplus parts, like when they used up the "series 1" 240z parts on "series 2" cars. But thats just speculation. (Also would have thought all 280zx's would have R200's too).

Lambs, You know anything about 300zx turbo (Z31) diffs? Wondering if the 300zx turbo had a LSD?

Sorry for the thread hijack. getting back to the LSD issue.

Theres some good info on www.hybridz.org about swaping the R200 Short nose VLSD centers into the Longnose R200 housing.

They also have people that have fabricated brackets to fit the shortnose into the S30 chassis.

Also there a some R200 Long nose LSD's for sale on www.ozdat.com/forum/ but they arent cheap.

bugger the LSD diff CIG locker much much more fun

Much more illegal on the street to...