After purchasing some SuperPro front castor rod bushes and trying to fit them, I quickly formed the conclusion they didn't fit.
When running 200B castor rods (modified) the hole up the centre of the SuperPro bush is too small. I could have drilled it out. I also found the diameter of the bush didn't fit the place where the castor rod bush sits in on the car.
The old Noltec bushes fit like a treat when they aren't all crumbly. Taking Baz' advice, I bought some white line bushes. They came with two sets of crush tubes (SuperPro didn't come with any!) and the best bit of all, they fit. So for this I recommend the Whiteline bushes.

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Those of you who have been following my build for a while will know that I fitted a CV joint kit a while ago. After replacing the CV joints themselves (was a GSP CV joint - made in China) with some fancy Roulex CV joints and packing them in with some very expensive Hi-Moly grease from Fuchs, I designed the new rear end around these CV's and shafts. I even went to the trouble of making up some new gaskets (because the old ones died when removing them). The first drive was coming up, so I decided to re-fit the CV kit...

Putting the shafts together there was a bit of slop in the shaft to CV joint. I thought about getting the shafts Electroless nickel plated to build up the splines a little, but the plater couldn't guarantee the thickness of the plating would suit the CV without going over. So I decided to use Loctite 680. It's a bearing retaining compound that is suited to high pressure applications and would ensure no slop between the splines of the shaft to the CV Joint. The CV joints looked pretty good with minimal wear. The balls looked in reasonable condition, but the cages looked pretty bad. They had noticeable wear marks and I felt a little hesitant putting them back in.
Packing them full of grease after using the Loctite was a messy business as per usual, but I'm now a veteran at this job. Lock wired in the socket head bolts and loctited them in with 262 thread locker. Let it cure for 24 hours
Job done. Drive time!

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

So I took the car for a drive. Time to see whether all the hard work feels like it could pay off.
Taking it very easy as this would be the first time I drove it with the new diff. I'm a fairly conscious of bedding things in correctly, so slowly and smoothly to start with. Into reverse and there's a little slop. Thought that would be fixed with the new diff... Back her out and go for a small drive around a few local round-abouts to bed this diff in! Diff feels great. Nice and quiet and feels quite tight
Felt good on gentle acceleration, but deceleration I could hear some noise!
What's going on? Better not be the brand new diff?
It sounds like it is coming from the right rear and only happens on deceleration. Oh there it is.. The unmistakable sounds of a CV joint clicking away.
I had a feeling it was the right rear outer as this CV had the most wear in it. Frustrated, I thought about my options considering I spent all that time designing a custom rear end around a new diff and these CV joints and their shafts.
Time to rip them out and think of some options.

I could buy new CV joints (and potentially have this happen again)?
I could buy a different Kit, but spend more coin?
I could sell the car and forget about working on the thing and buy something else that I could actually drive?

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

The fit of the superpro bushes in the cup was the first thing I noticed. Note that the whiteline castor rod bush has a different diameter at either end.
This due to the cup being slightly smaller than the washer. Exactly the same as the original OEM bush. It was this attention to detail that prompted me to use the noltec bushes.
Also the durometer was softer.

Thankfully whiteline obtained the noltec moulds when they went under. With whitelines polyelastomer and softer durometer we now have an excellent set of bushes for our cars
Note that the bush whiteline list for the 1600 has 2 sets of crush tubes.

There is also the standard bush kit that has only one set of tubes which fit all 1600s.
This kit fits standard rods & is a perfect fit. It is not listed for 1600 tho we buy most of these ones. It also costs less as you are not paying for the extra crush tubes. We stock both.

We only use the dual crush tube kit for adjustable castor rods. Which are now standard fitment in our front end kits.



White line have been making alterations to crush tube sizes as per our recommendations. These are slowly being introduced.
That said. the current whiteline rear control arm crush tubes are still sized better than the superpro.

By cutting corners superpro are cheaper to buy. Value for money? No!

Nick it would be great to share your findings on DUDs. It may help to partially restore my credibility after the noltec fiasco.

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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
www.datsport.com

"R.I.P. Baz. 29 April 2022. Thank you for all your contributions to the Datsun community over the years. You will be missed." - OZDAT

Nick, I would suggest the R30/ 280Z tripod outer joints. So far they are holding up well on the cars that we know of that have them fitted.
The 6 bolt flange & no spacer is a winner. Also the longer travel of the tripod allows for a lot more flexibility in fitting.

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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
www.datsport.com

"R.I.P. Baz. 29 April 2022. Thank you for all your contributions to the Datsun community over the years. You will be missed." - OZDAT

Start the ringing around process. There's a few options. One comes out a winner.
Stewart Wilkins Motorsport.
Fire a few emails through to Stewart who apologises that he is absolutely flat out and will get back to me soon. He has a CV joint option that's up to the task and has some of the parts in stock. Using a 6 bolt flange from a skyline, custom made shaft and 29 spline input shafts into the R200, it will bolt straight in and fit the spline count of my Quaife. Plus he can custom make the size to suit my wider track! All bolts supplied, plus nuts, flanges and painted.
I let him know my track increase, the diff ratio and spline count of my diff.
The decision is easy.
Just under 2 weeks later he's got all the parts ready, the shafts back from heat treatment and fully assembled ready to ship down. 1 day later I have a package...
Some of you may think "Why didn't you just make some up yourself?"
The answer comes easily... I would have to find parts, learn what fits, tweak, fix, measure, draw up custom shaft, get made, heat treat and perhaps more R&D and not enough driving. I crunched some numbers and the price SWM is charging would probably be about the same if I did it all myself, and took a month or two doing it.

They arrive, I couldn't wait to unbox them... Packaged well they look the part. Time to start putting them in.
I was panicking about removing the 27mm nut to fit the 6 bolt flange. I used a 1" 1/16 socket instead of a 27mm socket for the axle nut as the imperial is just a little smaller by a fraction.
The trick is to connect something somewhere to allow you to pump through the required torque not only to undo it, but to do it back up again. I chose to take advice from my old man and use a long piece of steel plate/bar with a single hole through it. Place one end through a wheel stud, tighten on with a wheel nut and the other edge rests on a nut tightened onto the other wheel stud. The nut is swage/deformed onto the wheel axle so a quick modification to a centre punch (one side flat and the other rounded) will allow this swaging to be removed. A few taps with a knock-ometer and the nut is smooth enough to remove without excessive force or damage to the threads. Each nut comes off with a fair bit of force and leaning on the breaker bar, but nothing crazy (I had previously changed the bearings around 30,000 K ago when building the car for the SR20). Putting everything back together is fairly painless. One thing I did notice was the flanges supplied are slightly thinner and the nut didn't match up that well with the flats on the axle shaft. A custom designed nut swaging tool was made up on the lathe with an approx 12.5degree ramp on it to try and swage the flats back onto the nut. This didn't work as well due to the thinner flange, so busted out the old Loctite 262 thread lock and coated it all up ready for some tightening action.
Lean on the breaker to achieve the 180-240 lb ft (approx 240-330Nm) required on this nut. I didn't have a torque wrench, but I did have approx 30kg (me) hanging on the end of the 1 metre breaker. Just wish I had a hoist instead of two jack stands...
Done.
Now use some tyre levers to pull out the stub axles inside of the diff from the old CV joints. Out they came (fairly easy when you have the right tools) and in goes the new shafts. A small persuasion with a dead blow hammer to drive them over the R200 internal circlips. Greasing them up slightly also helps.

Bolt up the 6x bolts on each side (also using the Loctite 262). Don't want these to come loose! I also use a paint pen to mark up the nuts/bolt heads, so I can check to see whether they have moved. Easy preventative maintenance and a quick way of telling whether something has moved just by looking underneath. I used the paint pen on the nuts/bolts on the rear end.
All mounted up, it's time to let the Loctite work its magic and give it 24 hours to set.
The rear end is now pretty much complete. I feel a drive coming on...

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Baz, I don't think your credibility needs restoring...Noltec on the other hand? How were you to know???
Noltec at the time were a great company, with smart sales and they listened to feedback and tried to improve. The only problem was their chemistry. A fairly important part of the company you would have to agree and unfortunately it was a time based thing...

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Great update Nik, cant wait to see it on the road again. it's been way too long.

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1600 Build: http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=22694

Thanks Trent.
Booked her in for a wheel alignment and then after that I reckon the windscreen crack needs to be fixed (replacement required)
Then on to getting it all ready for some track days again.

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

Great work Nik, so very close! you must be excited!

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1600 Build: http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=22694

Who's doing the alignment, Nik?

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build-threads.com

Craig at Trackside in Kilsyth.
Going for a more aggressive alignment ready for track/street duties.
Plus I have never aligned the new rear end before!

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

So there are a few interesting noises coming from the rear end of the car.
Mostly to do with driveline. Could be the Diff, could be the tailshaft, could be the CV's. I have a sneaking suspicion it's from the Diff, but have yet to investigate in detail.
Can anyone recommend a good driveline place that can diagnose these issues (as I'm having difficulty by myself)
Can anyone recommend a place that can rebuild diff's in melbourne that are <highly> recommended?

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun

How about a drive out to warragul for les to have a look. He will diagnose the problem and is a pro at rebuilding R series diffs if needed

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Circuit Race 1600 in the build

I am tempted. Would prefer local though. Driving out there may wear out what ever is going on there...

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1972 Datsun 1600, S14 SR20DET Engineered (204rwkW @ 17psi.)
viewtopic.php?t=6579
#SR20Datsun @SR20Datsun