Rear-end question?

[Guest 77ZWIND]

Hi,I am new to this fourm.Glad to see other ford powered Z's.Lots of nice looking one's too.I have a 77z 302H.O with a C-4 will be going to an AOD soon.My question is how strong are these rear-ends in the z cars?Where is a good place to get parts?Are there differnt gear ratios?My Z has a whinning noise from diff and i cant seem to find any bearings or gears anywhere. Thanks

[blueovalz]

Your '77 should have the R200 differential, which is the "bigger" of the sets offered in the Z series. This differential should be plenty tough for the HO motor, and then some. The generally agreed upon weakness in the rear drivetrain area is the U-jointed half shafts. Some members here have had good luck with these, but I feel it's only due to nearly perfect angularity in the U-joints. For the most part though, the ZX Turbo CV jointed halfshafts are an improvement over the U-jointed ones. This requires some particular parts to work though; 1) 240Z axles and the ZX shafts and companion flanges, or 2) The conversion kit to mate the ZX shafts to the 280Z axles (which Ross at Modern Motorsports offers). After you've done this, then you should get lots of reliable miles out of the drivetrain.

There are a variety of gear ratios, which I am not an expert on. But I believe they range from ~3.3 up to 3.7 in OEM configuration (And higher as I've got a 4.11)

Victory British is where I purchased my carrier bearings and seals from, but they did not offer the pinion gear bearings for the R200.

Last, but not least, do a careful search for this info in the archives being careful on key words (e.g. R200, CV joints, ZX Turbo shafts, etc). There is a ton of info on this subject just waiting for an eager reader such as yourself.

[Guest 77ZWIND]

Thanks for the info.Your right lots of reseach and info on this subject. thx again