231Z

I've got a new set. Ground control coilovers with tokico illuminas. contact me at turbobuick87@hotmail.com if interested.

Lot of NOS 240Z parts http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/pts/4487800078.html

Matt, What gear set were you running in the Q45? Had you ever considered an R230 with a Quaife LSD and Richmond gears? A friend runs this set up in his 300ZXTT that puts down 717hp and 630 lbs torque. It is a daily driver and regular track car. The limiting aspect is the ring and pinion ratio.

Rick, Beautiful build. I hope to do something similar. Not busting balls, just curious that you bought the BullDawg LSX swap kit, but then fabricated your own mounts. Can you give us any insight to this? I've heard their mounts, John's cars and JTR's are good for the LSX swap. I have heard that with these kits you may have to buy the 58m offset for the T56 trans to set it back close to the stock location of the original shifter. Thanks for any insight. Tyson

GOTHALOSISM: Think before I post??? LCA's or bodyparts, it makes no difference. The issue is Justin's immaturity and poor business practice. First and foremost, if I had a complaint and I'm being served by a waiter or am having an issue resolved at a dealership, than that waiter or dealer representative better have enough sense not to point the finger at the cook or manufacturer as a scapegoat to the issue. Sure the later may serve as the root of the problem, but the aforementioned still represent the product whether they like it or not. Can you image a Nissan dealership calling the manufacturer "shady" or "garbage?" I don't think that dealership would last long selling anyone's product. The person to place blame is the end user, not the middle person arranging sales and handling the customer. Justin is ultimately the go between and quality control. He sees every item that leaves his home that came from Oscar. If there is an issue to be resolved, it isn't for him to air it out loud as he represents the products, whether he made them or not. Diming off the manufacturer is poor business practice and only conveys he is not capable of handling misfortunes, accidents, quality control issues, design flaws, returns, and basic negotiating with suppliers. This is why big business pays big money for quality representatives, overhead, licensing and insurance in the event there are these types of issues. Justin doesn't have those means and has played way above his head. He's finally been caught and he has no recourse. I didn't get a business degree from one of the finer institutions on the West Coast for nothing. This, coupled with years of retail experience and customer service taught me something. Sometimes you have to eat the **** you serve...Justin just isn't willing to do that and quite frankly, I'm not convinced he knows how. HIs customer service is directly correlated to his personal life. When things are good you hear from him, when not, he hides. Don't make Justin out to be the hero that he is saving lives. Remember, he's touched every product that's been shipped and he touted himself, how great the product were on his own website. Now he looks like a fool, pointing the finger and trying to circumvent the issue with a hindsight 20/20 approach. If he only knew...that is BS! He is still responsible for mitigating the issue. He is the salesman and he did the leg work to find Oscar. He checked Oscar's work from the first mold. He approved it. He sold it. He said it was great. He reaped a benefit. He posted customer responses. He earned more sales. Then he got a bad one and maybe another. Now he doesn't want to touch it. He just wants his molds and to walk away with no ownership. I don't have any investment in this. I don't know Oscar, but I do know Justin as his former customer (can you call someone that when they never got a product). He has less than desirable qualities and lots to learn. He is young and eager, but misguided and not entirely capable. He has owness in the matter. He needs to step up. He should compensate those that have faulty products as they were sold from his website. His recourse is to take civil action against Oscar to reclaim his loss and any other matter he is alleging of him. In the meantime, he should apologize to his community for lashing out unprofessionally at the very person he contracted to make his products. In the future, he might think about another approach. For example: "It has come to my attention that some released products have failed in use. I have chosen to stop the manufacturing of those items until the identified problems have been resolved and made safe. For those that have experienced problems with my products, please contact me personally so I may help resolve any issues you may be having. It is my intention to make sure my customer base is pleased with the products I offer as I only intend to offer the highest quality products." That is good business!

Wow. Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black. For Justin to say this is another "shady" business is a joke. He has the shady business. When I ordered my LCA's from him in Jan 2011, he was taking the orders for the next lot of 10. They were supposed to be finished and shipped within a "few weeks." Three months later I found out that he never satisfied the original order of 10, as people were still waiting and complaining. Several months went by. I checked in at about 6 months. He said that he moved and now the shop that had the jigs and did the work was too far for him to keep up with. A few months later he wouldn't respond. By October 2011, I told him I wanted a refund. He said he would have the LCA's done and shipped within the month. By November, no such luck. I demanded my payment back and was told I'd have it within the week or two. He finally returned my money in Jan 2012. Poor business is advertising that you have something for sale on your website, but can not complete. He has the nerve to tell people that he is just a sole proprietor and things take time. The order may not come with an expected ship date, but he will guarantee it will ship. Wish he had told me that when I first ordered them, to save me the hassle. One day I'm going to guarantee that I'll die too, but that could be today or 50 years from now. What a silly concept of a guarantee. What ever is being stated by Justin of xclusivekoncepts, JDMflares, or Oscar one should consider the source. There was a reason he got the boot from here. He isn't misunderstood, he is a cheat. To be quite honest, I got the feeling that Justin just collected money from people to pay his bills and the next payment eventually pays the first person back. A rolling Ponzi scheme of sorts. Only reason I think this, is what happened to my $550 for a year and why did I have to wait months to get it back? Give Justin's website a look (I won't post it as that is free advertising). He's is delighted to share his finished products and what he's shipped to people. Several shots include the great quality of product he's proud to offer. Now that there is an issue, liability or flaw, he wants nothing to do with it. HYPOCRITE!! The only reason Justin is bringing this to light, other than wanting his molds back, is that he doesn't want to absorb the liability for the poor/flawed products he's sold to people. He can point the finger at someone else...likely because his business is not licensed or insured (not confirmed).

need4speed069 is incorrect. Armadas used the 2.937 gear ratio beginning in 2004. See my tutorial on the conversion with photos. It is nearly complete, but goes through many of the steps. It is not a do-it-yourself conversion without the right tools and some additional knowledge on shimming. I'm in over $1000 easy on this conversion. I'm hoping it works. So far it looks good. Please note, the expense was due to a complete overhaul. New bearings, races, seals, bushings, powder coating, machining, etc... Tyson

Between what R230's? The 300zxtt came with one and so did the Nissan Armada. The differences are subtle. Do a search on my R230 conversion and you'll see photos. Tyson

Need R230 differential shim/s (side to side) for my R230 conversion project. Nissan is out of inventory. If you have some laying around please contact me. Thanks, Tyson turbobuick87@hotmail.com 831-252-2106

The kits are fantastic, but they are custom made for the shop directly. Rob has put in lots of time, energy and money into developing his kits. He's looking to be compensated for that and this happens through installation process. He has enough business he can turn it away. The bigger issue is liability. Since every car is different and these are custom kits, his team is equipped to handle any minor tweaks. Selling them directly could lead to lawsuits for improper installation. Furthermore, he doesn't have the time to sit on the phone with everyone who purchases the kits and needs questions answered. It just isn't worth it to him. Rob has built a reputation for quality service here in the Bay Area. He's probably the most knowledgable Z source of anyone I've met (this includes all models). Tyson

Good luck getting Justin's attention. I paid for my RLCA's in January and he has made no progress on them, not a single weld. He's still not fulfilled the original 10 that were ordered.

@ yessir - ???????? Not sure what you mean. Can you re-drill the output flanges? Do you mean change the spline count? The reason for using the 300zxtt diff is for the LSD. The reason for using the Armada ring gear is the gear ratio. The reason for using the 300zxtt output flanges is that they are the same spline count as the LSD and they clear the lower A arms on the car better when bolted up to a modified moustache bar. So here is a little progress on my side to side lash issue and back lash. To create the correct amount of back lash needed I milled .025 off the LSD housing shown in the photo below. This moved the ring gear over to the left (driver side) enough to gain just the right amount of back lash. I'm left shimming the side to side lash now. Issues others have had is not fully seating the bearing into the race as shown in the photos above. Additionally, there are no off the shelf shims you can use, so they have to be fabbed or use what you have. I'm using the shims from both the 300zxtt and the Aramada and I'm close but too tight. I will sand down the shims to fit. I'll post a photo showing this process later. Almost there. Sorry it is taking so long, but it is possible. Let it be known that it is difficult to do this without some machining and replacing parts. I'll be in about $1000 when all is said and done. That includes the cost of two rear ends, all new bearings, races, seals, and powder coating.

Having the right tools has made this job much easier. My friend Lewis at Oller Brothers Auto in Santa Clara (2555 Lafayette St) has also been a huge help. He's put up with my questions and led me every step of the way. Here are some more shots:

I've hit a road block as mentioned in Cyrus's post at this hyperlink: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/40615-2941-3111-and-3361-gears-in-a-r230-i-did-it-sort-of/page__p__331349__hl__cyrus__fromsearch__1#entry331349 CYRUS WROTE: "The set up will work but I need shims of ~1.6mm on the left and ~3.54mm on the right, but nissan only sells 2.0 mm-2.5 mm. The shims are 99mm in dia. The only other issue is the right bearing only is in contact with 2/3 rds of the machined case. This leaves 1/3 of it to float in air. I am not sure if this is significant." The pictures below demonstrate what the issue is. The Armada comes with one set of shims from the factory that are the same size (2.1 MM). The 300zxtt has different size shims. I saved mine and the ones from the 300zxtt to mock up the LSD fit into the Armada. The factory shims will not work to provide the right fit. The issues are back lash and side to side lash. Back lash is the slight "play" in the pinion and ring gear movement (about 5-7 thousandths is what I'm told is correct). By moving the pinion in one direction then the other, there should be a slight play before the ring gear engages. You can feel this in your hand and hear it when you are setting this. The issue in my case is that if the side to side lash is too tight, I lose the back lash when spinning the pinion gear. So a loose fit determined what I've shown in the pictures below. I set the LSD into place with no shim on the left side and stacked up shims on the right side (8 MM shim and a 2.1 MM). With no shim on the left, I maintained some back lash. When I put in a 2 MM shim, the back lash went away. I have a little room to play here, but not much. The bigger issue here is that the bearing does not fully seat inside the race. If I do push it all the way in by moving the LSD over more to that side, I lose my back lash, but the LSD nearly hits the inside of the case where the bearing caps bolt to. To correct this I think I'm going to have to shim the back side of the bearing to move it into the race. I still have a lot of playing to do and right now, I could easily put in another 20 hours to figure this out. I've got a call into Z-GAD and Cyrus who have both done this. Hopefully they will have some insight on this issue. It is going to take some playing around. Unfortunately, Nissan only makes shims from 2 MM to 2.7 MM in .05 increments. I will have to make custom shims or find the Ford Raytech shims that Cyrus used. More to follow as I figure this out.

And I was wrong, the ABS sensors can be pressed out and will not interfere. Sorry for any mistakes. The finned 300zxtt cover fits great.

I believe they are 16#'s each. Tyson

Satan, I wanted the 2.94 ring gear, so I have combined the two diffs into one. I am using the LSD from the 300zxtt and the pinion gear and ring gear of the Armada. Since the LSD is matched to the 300zxtt stub axles (spline count match), I used those to finish off the diff. The benefit to me is that I will have a four speed automatic. By lowering the rear gearing, it will be hwy friendly and better matched for my over all combo. I will be running a Buick Grand National turbo v6 motor with a 200r4 brf transmission. Hope that helps. Tyson

Ever take any photos?

http://www.panasport.com/ Panasport custom C8 three piece rims, 17" x 7.5" with 4.75" backspacing and 4 lug centers. Fits 275/17 tires under stock fenders with coilovers and adjustable lower control arms. Panasport quotes these at over $1000 each. I have one complete set, new in box, available for sale. PM me if interested. Tyson

Got the diff case back from Spray Technology (Santa Clara, CA). I went with 40% black on the case and pinion flange. Also did the stub axles in 40% wet. I'm waiting on the last of the bearings to put it all back together. On the next phase, I should have it back together less the shims for the side to side clearance of the LSD. Tyson

Scottie, If you didn't get an answer to this yet, try Bruce Toelle of Performance Transmissions in the Sacramento, CA area. He is WE4 on turbobuick.com forum and moderates the Transmission section on that site. You might already know who this is because he is the originator of billet parts for the 200r4 BRF . He also has his own website. Good luck, Tyson

Duplicate

Finally got some time to hit the project again. I removed the pinion flange. The pinion took a huge beating before I gave up and looked for this puller. The pinion was in there super tight. I removed the remaining gaskets and finally have a bare case to work with. I've sent it out for powder coat, along with the inner stubs and pinion flange. I noticed that the 300ZXTT cover where the anti-lock brake sensors go, where pressed in. SO...I WAS INCORRECT ABOUT THE FITMENT OF THE 300ZXTT COVER ONTO THE ARMADA DIFF NOT WORKING. INFACT, IT WILL. When the parts come back, I'll show the reassembly. Making progress.

Okay, so I'm back on track with some new updates: Here are two photos showing the LSD Finned Cover from the ZXTT R230 on the carrier of the Armada R230...it doesn't fit without shaving the ABS sensor provisions. Next was removing the inner stub axles from each differential. I'll show the Armada as the ZXTT R230 inner stub removal is the same process. Notice that each inner stub has a ring to help hold the inner stub in place inside the differential. The inner stub axles are removed with a slide hammer: Now you can see the visual difference between the Armada R230 inner stub axles and the ZXTT R230 inner stub axles. They are very different. From the top working down to the flange the Armada stub diameteres are approx. 34mm, 36mm, 50mm and the same length. The ZXTT stub diameters are 32mm, 40mm, 50mm and vary in their length. ALSO NOTE, THE ARMADA STUBS ARE 33 SPLINE, THE ZXTT STUBS ARE 31. THE ARMADA R230 STUBS WILL NOT FIT IN THE LSD FROM THE ZXTT R230. Lastly for this series of the post, notice the difference in the ring gear. The Armada on the left, the ZXTT on the right (LSD). The Armada and ZXTT use 17mm bolts to secure the ring gear to the gearing or LSD. The Armada bolts are larger in diameter though and will not fit through the LSD holes from the ZXTT. These need to be drilled out to pass the Armada bolts through to secure the Armada ring to the ZXTT LSD. A quick trip to the machine shop and this was done in 5 minutes. The LSD is not hardened, it almost appeared cast for as easy as it was to cut through. Armada: ZXTT: Armada bolt in ZXTT LSD. The spider gears from the Armada and the LSD from the ZXTT show bearings/races at each end. When inside the housing, the side to side lash is minimized by shims as shown beneath the bearing/race cover in the next photo. This shim varies based on the tolerance difference in each item made from the factory. Once I've determined what my variance will be, I'll photo what I've used. That's it for now. I still have to remove the pinion. To make this right, I'll buy new seals, races, and shims. I'll send out the carrier, inner stubs, and pinion to be powder coated. Stay tuned.

mrcheeze36, I read every R230 discussion on this site and found them all very helpful to get started. I appreciate the insight others have given as it has answered so many questions for me. Unfortunately, most R230 discussions list the basic items needed to interchange the diffs, however, none detail each step necessary to complete the diff for use(ex. bearings, shims, seals, what goes where, and where goes what). My goal is to photo detail each step so that anyone who visits this page has a clear understanding to complete the job themselves and clear up any details that may not be exactly right. Ex: I've read in 5-6 places that the Z32 LSD finned cover will fit the Armada...it absolutely WILL NOT. The bolt holes line up, but the wall thickness on the back of the Armada carrier interferes with the ABS sensor provisions on the sides of the Z32 rear cover. Those provisions have to be ground off to get the cover to fit. "Looks like Z-Gad ditched the Armada output flanges/stubs in favor for the Z32TT R230 output flanges/stubs so they don't have issues matching up with the CVs on the Z32TT/Q45 axles." That might be the case, but with what I'm reading I think it was an ease thing. The R230 obviously has some mounting issues. With the Z32TT output shafts flange in the Armada case there is a clearance issued with the lower A arms and the upper unibody. Because the Armada flanges are bigger, it would make that clearance issue more pronounced. The easy way to solve that issue is to use the smaller diameter output flange. It might also be that it is done this way to mate to CV's. But CV's are yesterday's news. TTT has a straight through design which eliminates that weak point altogether. What I thought was interesting was the thickness difference of the ring gear between the two. I would have thought that the Armada ring gear would be thicker. I'm not sure this plays a factor in anything, but it raised my eyebrow. Keep posted for the next round of the swap.