Will the axles from an 83 turbo bolt right up to my 79 280zx??

 

You need the CV axles, the hubs and the stub axles. I have found thet there are 2 or 3 different spline combinations from 70-83 so it's best to get a set from the donor car. This is assuming you have the R200 diff.

 

Sorry been out of the country for a while but now im back and gonna get the Z going again. How do I know which diff I have in my car and what would be involved in swapping in an LSD?

 

The R180 has a 5-bolt flange on either side where the axles go. The R200 does not have provisions for bolting on axle flanges. So if you got bolts on the sides it's an R180, if not... well you get it.

 

Do you mean the gear ratio?

Take a buddy, and just turn it to find out. Fix one rear wheel so it can't turn (pry bar and foot of the driveshaft counter, or jam it otherwise). Mark the driveshaft w/ chalk or scratch w/ a nail. rotate the other rear wheel 10 times, other person counts the driveshaft rotations. Then multiply the driveshaft rot's number by 2(and divide by ten I spose) and whammo its your diff ratio.

If 10 turns gives you (x driveshaft rotations) just shy of 17, then its a 3.365 17.5 then a 3.54 18.5 then a 3.7 19.5 then a 3.9 Each difference is at least a whole number (except 3.36->3.54, but still 16 or 17?) so this always works for us. Don't forget to grab the speedo gear out of the tranny (one 10mm bolt), even though you don't need it (w/ a 700R4 for a V8 conversion), if you ever sell it it'll help out a Datsun dude.

Others reccomend removing the rear cover plate and readig the ring gear. The number of teeth on the ring and pinion are stamped on the ring gear - so just divide one number by the other. The units I look at most of the time are still in the cars, so this "counting the turns" method works for me.

If you mean 'Do I have an R180 or an R200?'.

Then you can figure that out by simply looking under the car and see if the drive shaft comes in at the center of the diff or offset to the side to where the axels are different lengths.

The R200 uses different length axels and the driveshaft is offset whereas the R180 uses equal length axels and the driveshaft is centered in the diff.