Owen Posted May 20, 2001 Share Posted May 20, 2001 I know I need to do some re-drilling of the mustache bar for my R230 but I don't have the R200 bar. Can I just redrill the R180 bar? Or is there a strength difference bewteen the two? Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest needwaymorespeed Posted May 20, 2001 Share Posted May 20, 2001 I think that they are smae as far as strength .the r200 piece allows the center section to be located further back in the car a good thing for our short drivelines. the r200 piece also allows the rear half shafts to line up better with the rear wheels Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted May 20, 2001 Share Posted May 20, 2001 The 2 bars seem to be of equal strength. You can flip the r180 bar around - it'll put the pumpkin about 1/4" too far back (vs. over an inch too far forward) relative to the R200 bar. YOu could just use some washers to make up that difference. Then again, that's if using the R200. Do we know that the distance from the rear mounting surface to the output shaft centerlines is the same between R200 and R230? It may not be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 21, 2001 Share Posted May 21, 2001 I don't have measurements but I do remember that the r180 bar was different from the r200. R200 is definatly thicker. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted May 21, 2001 Share Posted May 21, 2001 Shouldn't matter guys. Look at the way the bar is taking stress - it's not foreaft stress it's rotational stress. It's the difference between compressing a 2X4 stood on end or trying to bend it in half. Compressing it is MUCH harder. The moustache bars flex foreaft but twising one would be darned tough to do. IMO the R180 bar should be fine. I've got an R200 bar here that's spare if you really have a burning urge but had wanted to hang onto it for my own conversion later on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 21, 2001 Author Share Posted May 21, 2001 Wouldn't that be cool if the R180 bar ended up being exactly the right size for the R230? I'm gonna be checking the junkyards next week or so for it as well as 280 comp flanges and stubs. Mark, do you have any measurements on your axles? Thanks, Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 21, 2001 Author Share Posted May 21, 2001 Good question. Does anyone have the measurements for the R200? Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted May 21, 2001 Share Posted May 21, 2001 I'm going to be the devil's advocate here, guys. When first raising the aft end of my R200, I drilled new holes 3/4 of a hole above the original holes and filled in the bottom 1/4 of the hole with weld. Then Paul Ruschman emailed me when he saw that on my site and said he was worried about welding on the spring steel of the mustache bar. After talking to some materials engineers and a specialty spring fabricator, they agreed that I probably took the temper out of the bar and weakened it. Weakening it in that area is the worst place (highest stresses there, and the holes are stress concentrations). So I got another bar and did a mod similar to what JTR recommends for raising the diff (removing the top isolator washer). Just be careful if you plan to weld on this piece. Drilling that bar is a pain, BTW - get some cobalt bits. Does the R230 swap mean that you are just enlarging the holes, possible offset a bit? As long as that's all you're doing and you don't heat it too much with the machining operation, you should be fine. Maybe something like a side milling of the holes would introduce less heat? [ May 22, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 21, 2001 Author Share Posted May 21, 2001 Thanks Pete, I know you mentioned that before and I'll keep it in mind. Wish I had extra pieces so I don't have the take the stuff off my car to do measurements...planning to go the the junkyards again once I get paid. Sucks being poor... Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted May 21, 2001 Share Posted May 21, 2001 It's a shame that the pics of Darius's car seem to be offline. He has an R230, but I don't recall which bar, R180 or R200. I seem to recall seeing extra holes though - as in, the orig. holes were left in and didn't seem to interfere with the R230 holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 22, 2001 Share Posted May 22, 2001 The holes on either mustach bar will not work. The R230 holes are wider. New holes would need to be made. Pete is right this stuff is hard so get some good bits ar get a machine shop to do it. Mark Owen, I believe my shafts were 12 3/4 inches long but I did not write it down so I will have to measure them. I'll do that when Mike Kelly has the rear control arms done. I'll have most of it apart to do the control arms and will measure and take pics then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest norm[T12SDSUD] Posted May 22, 2001 Share Posted May 22, 2001 The R180 bar will break!!The R200 bar is made of thicker steel. I ran an R180 bar with widened bolt holes with my R200 and after I started drag racing the sucker broke in two!!! If my little I6 had enough torque to break that sucker in two ,then you better believe that a V8 with slicks could shred her instantly!! later,norm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted May 22, 2001 Share Posted May 22, 2001 I wonder... perhaps a block of some material could be bolted to the stock holes and accept th suds from the back of the R230? If there was a gap and the holes didn't line up this might work? Or perhaps mount something on the back if simply extra holes are needed that could tie in the new holes with the old? Bolts through the old, through a plate, and bolted - studs through the new holes, throughthe plate, and bolted? Am I making sense? Just sort of thinking out loud, this swap sounds like it would be a real help to us all if it could be documented like the R200 sawp is. No more clutches to wear out in the diff, just change the viscous fluid to get it stiffer or not. That would be most cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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