JMortensen

Not a fan of the roof spoiler. Surprisingly not offended by the rest of it. Pretty impressed actually. I can see the modded ones looking really good.

Agreed on AZC's probably Chinese struts, and their control arm setup. Their AL rear strut is also not the strongest design, cobramatt broke his and mentioned it here, along with the need to upgrade the struts because they weren't up to snuff. Also not a fan of their AL bumpsteer spacer/short steer knuckle. Ben broke his and replaced with the Apex Engineered steel ones. I really don't like T3s rear arm design, but outside of that, at least you know that the struts are good. You didn't say longnose or short nose R200, but I'm also not impressed with T3's power cradle thing they're selling for a shortnose mount. Apex makes a rear arm based on my own design, so I'm partial to that, but they've had a lot of complaints about not being able to provide axles for their full track package setup. Also the short arm in the front setup looks ridiculously short. I haven't seen any kinematics, but I'd like to see what the camber curve on that one is.

Clean metal, prepped with brake cleaner. Most of the metal had been hit with an angle grinder + knotted wire wheel, so should have been plenty of grip available.

FWIW, I used Rust Bullet and scuffed and prepped and it did flake off in fairly large flakes. Could be my prep wasn't up to snuff, but I'm no longer a fan.

FWIW, I have an aluminum 5.3/T56 in my early 240. Pre swap was 49.5F / 50.5R with me in it, after swap is same weight within 2 lbs, but 52/48 with driver weight, so more front heavy. This is with the engine 1.5" from the firewall, but also has a heavy plywood splitter, heavy aftermarket PS rack gigantic wheels and tires, etc. With iron block should be closer to 54/46ish. You can make that handle if that's what you're after, just takes some working with alignments, etc.

There has to be some angle; the angularity is what rotates the needle bearings in the u-joints. Without the angle the power will be applied to the same few needles over and over and they will fail quickly. Occasionally you'll see this come up when someone makes their own mounts and decides to "fix" the driveshaft angles by not having any. Sounds good but doesn't work, unless you're running a torque tube without u-joints like a Vette or a 944.

There are some old threads on using laser pointers. I don't think you'll find a spec as to what the angle should be, but you will find some info on how to adjust. I am just horrible at math, so I did the laser pointer thing and basically shined lights from the diff and the trans on a piece of paper in the middle and then moved the trans mount until I could move the paper back and forth and the distance between the dots hardly changed at all. Basically held up the piece of paper, marked the dots with a sharpie, moved paper and tried to line up the dots again at the new location. When I got a minimum of movement of the dots, I called it good and welded up my engine and trans mounts to keep that angle. You can do this more accurately with trigonometry if you're less retarded than me. Regardless, my math avoidance workaround was successful, no vibrations with V8 offset to pass side, T56, R200, very short driveshaft (cyl head is ~1.5" from firewall) I want to say CTC on the driveshaft u/joints was 19". The problem with just the vertical angle measure is that the trans and diff might not be parallel to the center line of the car, and they are probably also not perfectly in line with each other.

I don't know what kit Z Car Depot is selling, but I've heard bad things about the cheapo RPM kits, and my friend had hers rebuilt 3 or 4 times due to bad synchros with that kit. It's been at least 20 years, so thinks may have changed, but I think factory Nissan synchros was the answer, the bearings in the cheap kits were fine buy synchro rings weren't up to snuff. EDIT--the other tricky part was the nut at the end of the mainshaft. Seems to have a propensity to loosen, despite being staked. My plan with mine was to tig weld the nut to the shaft in a couple spots and hope it didn't warp the shaft too much. Wonder if you might be able to tighten and then drill a hole and put a roll pin through to keep it from moving.

For now, since you still have the L, just get a 280Z shaft. It will be the right length, and you can try and match up the bolt pattern to your diff flange. IIRC the 280 diff has different bolt pattern than the Z31 R200. That NEAPCO part that Ben referenced is for when you get the big power motor in the car. Then you'll need to swap the transmission, and at that point you'll go to 1310 joints, use that flange and have a new shaft built. I think Ben's transmission uses standard American car stuff, so he probably has Camaro or similar slip yoke, that NEAPCO end on the diff side, and then a custom steel or AL tube in the middle. That's what I did on mine too (steel because it was cheaper and the weight difference was like 2 or 3 lbs), but you're not there yet. EDIT--Thinking maybe your 240 shaft will bolt right up to the R200? I remember there was one or two years that used 10mm bolts instead of 8mm. I think the rest is the same though???

That "cradle" from TTT looks insufficient to me as well. I'd run both if possible while working on a different solution. YMMV.

The thing that worries me most about any shortnose swap, Nissan or Ford, is the front mount. Any mount that attaches to the front of the diff and then to the strap holes in the chassis is insufficient, IMO. Having "arms" that are attached to the strap holes essentially gives the diff more leverage to rip the chassis apart, and we've had several members tear up the strap hole area of the chassis, which is probably the strongest part of the whole unibody. Needs to be a cradle that holds the entire diff, and attaches to the strap holes in front and the mustache bar bushings in the rear.

Checking backlash is simple but requires a dial indicator and magnetic base. You stick the base somewhere on the housing and aim the dial indicator at one of the ring gear teeth, perpedicular to the tooth face, then you just rock the carrier back and forth and watch the gauge. Good idea to do it in 3 places around the ring gear after as this also double checks that you have the ring gear on the carrier straight. I've never tried, but I'd bet you could get the bearings on with a hammer and a socket if you didn't have a press. Or, $150 is pretty reasonable cost to have it done. As far as the ebay auction LSD, looks like a 2 way. This video explains ramp angles, etc.

As to the different "ways": 1 way works on accel only, does nothing on decel. Usually found on FWD cars. 1.5 way works full power on accel, does a little on decel. Good for road racing, autox, canyon driving. 2 way works equally on accel and decel. Good for drifting, road racing, etc but going to be looser than 1.5. 1.5 way is the best choice, that said the Nissan LSD is 2 way and I've been using them forever for autoxing. Would rather have 1.5, but not worth it to spend the money and change it out for me. Be careful out there. Canyons are unforgiving.

If you're even moderately good with a wrench you can install an LSD. The tough part about differentials is setting pinion depth, and you don't have to get into that at all to put an LSD in. I did a write up on it:

Agree with Ben. It's all about the tires and the launch. If you're drag racing, spend the money and go 8.8 (I'd do that over 9 or R230). If not, the R200 is probably good enough but you really will need the chromoly stub axles to finish it off, at which point, you're coming pretty close to the cost of the 8.8 swap.