I've removed the dust shields on my R160 stub axles so they would fit into my R180. That was over 20 years ago and I've never had a problem with the seals leaking from being exposed.
Way back in the day a local guy said he was able to open up a subi R160 LSD and add the bolt retainers. It's been years and I can't remember which diff it was. Maybe that one? I've pulled the threaded, splined cap out before and put them in later K R180's.
"People don't like it when shit doesn't match their rule of thumb." Sam
linnmath wrote:Fred, I'm very curious on how you make out as I picked up the exact same R160 for mine but haven't got that far in my build.
As soon as I get it done I'll update the thread with the result.
In the mean time, I checked the hardness of the shafts and it's too hard to be machined. The groove needs to be done with a tool post grinder, which we don't have at work. I have to find a small machine shop to do it.
icehouse wrote:Way back in the day a local guy said he was able to open up a subi R160 LSD and add the bolt retainers. It's been years and I can't remember which diff it was. Maybe that one? I've pulled the threaded, splined cap out before and put them in later K R180's.
That never crossed my mind, maybe a plan B? We'll see.
Fred_L-P wrote:
In the mean time, I checked the hardness of the shafts and it's too hard to be machined. The groove needs to be done with a tool post grinder, which we don't have at work. I have to find a small machine shop to do it.
Precision dremeling?
Rear Wheel Drive, The way God Intended.
If a car is being pulled from the front, doesn't that mean it's being towed?
Have you gotten anywhere on this? I have an R160 Suretrac 4.11 sitting in my garage that I picked up a few months ago. Looking to put it into my car as well here soon. It'd be nice to be able to machine a groove, but I did grab the axles from the car it came out of just in case i needed to use them to make a new stub.
I actually just went outside and took it apart for the first time. The axles I got look like a Suretrac, the specs list a suretrac, but the diff is a VLSD ver 1.
I'm slowly starting to leak the news that there's a solution for leveraging Subaru's cool R160 LSD options.
In the pic below you can see the slightly longer Subaru stub on the left vs the OEM 510 on the right.
JDM_R160_Stubs.jpg (127.65 KiB) Viewed 3673 times
I've begun to offer JDM R160 stubs that bolt up to Datsun 1/2 axles, or better yet, Datsun Restomods' CV axles. These stubs will work with R160 Suretrac and Viscous units.
The web/eCommerce site won't be up until January 1st. I'll be in Vancouver next week (Nov 25th, 2018) if anyone's interested in seeing the stubs in person.
cambo wrote: ↑13 Jul 2018 23:10
Had a chance to machine those stub shafts yet? I'm in the need for a LSD diff and would like to know if grinding the shafts worked out.
Thanks, Cam.
Sorry for the late response. I never machined the stubs since I picked up a set from Fritz (Dadzsun).