Guest Anonymous Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Hi, I have a 741/2 260Z that I just performed an R200 swap on, and now I get a weird grinding noise under the car The problem seems to get worse when the car is in drive and I hit the accelerator, it produces a grinding noise untill I either let off, or sometimes after I tap the pedal again a second time... I think the diff is moving, and the driveline is hitting the sway bar, but I havent gotten a chance to have the car lifted to find out what is going on... Looking under the car shows proper clearences, somebody once told me to jack up slightly on the diff to see if their is excess play under the mount, but I did this and dont see anything like this, I think the top "diff strap"is failing. Does anybody have any idea how to cheaply and easily tighten down the rear diff? Im considering chain or cable... or maybe a custom bracket... any ideas would be appreciated. thanks Dan 76 260 - chev 350 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stony Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 you do have oil in the diff right? beside the diff being bad cant think of anything else that would casue a notable grinding noise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Hrmm.... Oil in the Diff.. I bought the diff used from a junk yard, maybe it needs oil... if the diff was just low on oil, do you think it would make a grinding noise like that? hrmm... thanks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Besides it maybe needeing diff oil could it be the rear diff under excelleration is hitting the e-brake cable and bracket? Mine did and I had to use a cable strap and that stopped the noise. Just a thought. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 By the way when I bought my 200r rear diff. I drained fluid from diff and it was very nasty and low to say the least. I would drain diff. and put some sinthetic diff fluid in. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 The E-brake cable and bracket, that very well could be what is being hit... when I look under the car I cant see it hit anything, but maybe its because its hitting something I cant see very well... I will investigate this. I was wondering, what kind of "cable strap" did you use, and how did you go about installing it? thanks Dan 260Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 FluxOr Dan, there are a couple ways to do this. Jon, a.k.a. Jumbo240Z, used a strap and then another braket. If you do a search in the driveline forum for diff strap you should find lots of info on this. Some solutions are cheap and easy with varing results. Others are more involved. Sounds like a cheap and easy would work fine for your application. Jon has pics too that help explain how to do it. Strap the nose of your diff down and change the gear oil and you should be miles ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 I went to HomeBoy depot and got 12 ft. of coated steel cable and kit for making loops on the ends(its a crimper of sorts) with clamp type brackets. Just ask HomeBoy helper. I just attached one end to diff strap mount in tunnel and ran three or four loops over the top of diff. Keep it tight as possible and attach loop onto other side of strap mount. This worked for me,hope I did not confuse you. Oh use 3/16's or 1/4 cable. Good luck! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 I had an old heavy duty bicycle cable lock, that I wrapped around the diff as many times as I could, and twisted it tight and locked it.. LOL but the noise continues.. it seems pretty solidly held down?!? Right now im looking at either no oil in the diff causing this grinding, or possible my diff is bad. dunno for sure, it looks as if it might have been smacking the E-brake assembly, but im not sure, when I put the car in drive and look under it, the driveshaft doesnt appear to be moved any farther upward, but maybe when I gas it, is when it flex's... I will need to fabricate a ScottieGNZ or Tylor style mounting bracket I think... I went down to my local jiffy lube (sunday) and had them hook me up with a quart of 45W90 gear oil (for free even!) and im about to fill it... so wish me luck. hopefully its only oil, but we will see.. their is no appearent "Thunk" any more.. just grind grind grind Dan 260Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 It very likely is the Ebrake cable, I remember at least three or four members running into this. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 I have confirmed that it is hitting the ebrake cable... but what is weird.. the noise I hear seems like its comming from under the diff... but I dont think thats where its hitting the ebrake hardware... I think its hitting the e-brake right under the handle, the R200 sits up alittle bit higher then the stock R180 did, then I had no clearence issues but now I do... I have heard that a solid mount will fix this issue in cases where the shaft is hitting the ebrake cable under the driveshaft yoke flange, but im pretty sure its hitting farther up... whats weird is, the noise seems to come from the rear end and not right under the brake handle... do you think a solid mount would resolve this issue, because I can see it... when the problem occurs the diff moves up probally 1/4 of an inch,"binds up" and this is all it needs to move to slam... im hoping a solid diff mount will keep it solid enough to prevent it from happening... I did hook up a cable setup on it, but its not "tight tight" and the 1/4th inch of play necessary to hit the assembly is easily slack space in the cabling I put on it. Im going to try a solid mount from MSI, we will see if this resolves the issue... thanks to everyone for your support!! btw, this is my car's make-up.... 74 1/2 260Z 4-bolt moderately built 350 with TH350 transmission with 2500 stall, 3.90 open R200 rear diff.. Dan 260-v8Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavy Z Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 FluxOr, if you haven't yet and before you go any farther with your investigation into a solid mount(or even drive your car, for that matter) - DRAIN the fluid out of the diff if there is even any left in there. I got lucky with my used diff, it had fluid. But that didn't stop me from draining it and filling it with Amsoil synthetic. I've seen enough parts from wrecking yards to know that your R200 could be a bomb waiting to go off if it has some of the crap in it that I've drained from salvage parts. I cannot stress enough the importance of this if you want your diff to last. Yes your diff will make alot of noise if it is low on juice, so this may be your problem after all. If you do indeed have sludge in the diff, change it with a cheaper grade gear oil and run that for a couple of weeks(unless you don't mind the price gauge of buying twice on synthetic) and then drain it again so as to get all the remaining glop you couldn't get the first time. Then you fill the diff with good synthetic - Amsoil or Redline, and as long as your diff doesn't leak you can walk away and forget about it. Now go drive hard - you'll notice a difference I can assure you. And you won't have to learn the hard way like I did when I fragged an RX7 diff years ago... Hope this helps, Heavy Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MYRON Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 If your problem is the front of the diff hitting the e-brake cable, you can do the cheapest and easiest and quickest fix. Go to auto parts house or home depot and get a length of chain and one of those chain links that you can open. Hoop it around and hook it together. It takes more time jacking up the car than it does to use the chain. Yes it is somewhat of a rig, but it is plenty stong, it will let the diff move a little but the best part is it wont break and it is cheap!.. I think I bought the chain kit designed for pulling engines and it had 2 lengths of chain and 2 hoops.. Myron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 3, 2002 Share Posted July 3, 2002 I used a bicycle lock to hold it down, wrapped it around the diff 3 times twisted it tight and put a padlock on it.. LOL I dont think the diff is hitting the ebrake cable at the front... I actually think the driveline is comming up farther down (near where the ebrake handle is) and tapping it their.. when I jacked the car up, and put it in gear... I when I gas it... I can see it "bind" and watch the diff raise about 1/2 inch... maybe even less then that... when I look up at how much clearence my e-brake cable has to the top of the diff it looks good, their is about 3 inches of space from the top of the diff to the ebrake hardware.. so im not sure.. do you think if the driveline hit the bottom of the ebrake handle itself, it would cause the driveshaft to bind up, maybe cause u-joint binding that would cuase the front of the diff to raise alittle? the noise sounds like its comming from the back... but I see plenty of clearence from the front of the diff to the ebrake.. im assuming im wrong, and it is raising high enough to hit the back ebrake, but it doesnt look like it.. do you think my cable/bike lock would give me the results im looking for? I can go get some chain.. do you think that would be the best idea? thanks Myron.. and I admire the sh1t out of your 260, I think I have patterend what I want my car to look like from yours! Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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