Diff chewed up, need some help

[datsunlover]

Hey folks, been a while..

 

So last sunday I blew up my diff, and although I havn't pulled it yet, I'm thinking it's destroyed; Made a hell of a bang and then grinding/screaming noises, pulled the plug when I made it home (limp in 2n'd gear, thought the thing was going to lock up on me!) and it's not really oil anymore in there... its something that resembles graphite paste or very gritty anti-sieze lol..shiney! never seen so much metal bits on a plug before! My guess is a spider gear let go/chiped a tooth/ect and it was only a matter of time..made strange vibration/light tapping noises off and on since I started driving it this year again.. Anyway, this WAS an r200 I put in from an 82 280zx, which has u-joint half shafts, and like a fool I scraped the original diff I took out... doh..

 

First question, if I could get an r200 from an 87 300zx, (one rotten down the road, could get cheep) what's involved in switching it over (if possible) to run my stock 75 280z driveshafts? See, I JUST replaced all 4 u-joints, and on top of that I don't really want to get into a c/v conversion right now, I have to move in a month and need this car to drive/move under it's own power...

 

2nd Q, if the driveshaft's wont convert, could I not in theory swap in the 'guts' from the 87 diff to my 82 housing? (although I havn't got it out yet so theres no telling what has gone on in there... could be a total write off, case and all)

 

Of course the simplest thing would be if I could find a 280zx diff somewhere close to me and just pop it in, but I'm not having such good luck with that

 

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated

 

 

Matt G

[JMortensen]

Welcome back. The parts list is in the diff sticky thread, but if you already have an R200 you need to swap out the pinion flange, side shafts (assuming the splines are OK), and the rear cover if it has the finned one. If it doesn't have the finned rear cover then you just need the pinion flange and output flanges.

[Mike C]

Yup, like Jon said, all you need to change are the side shafts and the input flange, unless you have a limited slip from the donor, then you need to ditch the finned cover. I put an '85 in my 240 for the 12mm ring gear bolts.

[datsunlover]

ok cool, so it WILL work, assuming my flanges are ok.. I've never workied on a 300zx, so I wasn't sure what changes they made to go with c/v shafts. I guess I'll have to drop my diff to find out for sure, only prob is like I said, I have to move in a month and as of right now, the car would drive itself on to a trailer if need be... If I pull the diff and run into issues, I'm in a pinch if I don't get it done in time. And I hate doing these kind of things on a timeline.. lol

 

I stopped and looked at the 300zx today, and it doesn't have a finned rear cover, but it looks a little different than mine so I wasn't sure.. (hard to tell lying on the grass at 7:30pm lol) but I figure an R200 is an R200 so if I can just swap the pinion and side flanges I'd be back on the road.