INSTALLATION GUIDE: J30 VLSD into S14 (With open diff)

[tctomasc]

Ok so today I took the open diff out of my 95 zenki, to swap in a J30 vlsd with 5 bolt axles. All in all went pretty well, and took me about 3 hours of on and off work, working on other cars at the same time. If you don't have access to a jack or w.e (Depending on the method you use to raise your car) you may need to enlist the help of some friends.

1. Take off the rear wheels, unless you have enough room to remove the cotter pin, but in my case I didn't. Take a screw driver and bend out the pin. Make it straight enough to pull out, or you can just destroy the thing and cut it up because you are going to need to replace them.

2. Once the cotter pin is out, remove the lock nut over the axle nut. If you have access to air tools gun it off using a 36 mm impact socket. If not, use a breaker bar. Any other method may prove to be too difficult, but once again friends can help you.

3. Remove your exhaust so that you can have more access to the diff and axles. This may not be necessary, but I did it just because I can. This is an HKS Hi Power just for your information and had 14mm bolts.

4. Drain the old diff fluid so that you can take the cover off and not have a huge mess to clean out. Doesn't need to be done, but I was bored so I did it in this order. By all means you can take it down as a unit then drain it, I just did it this way. You will need a 1/2 inch drive to undo the square bolt, and I used a small extension so I could get at the bolts better.

5. Next remove the axles. You will need two 14 inch box end wrenches, or you could try and fit a socket in there, but I found it to be more trouble then it was worth.

6. Remove the drive shaft from the diff, by unbolting the 4 bolts. Once again you will need the 2 box end 14's and on the front side of the shaft you will have to use the open end.

7. put a jack of some sort under the diff for this one, or have your friend on standby to help you hold up the diff. There are 3 19's on the back of the diff cover. On the left there are 2 on the same stud, with a grounding ring inbetween the 2. You will need a semi long but still shallow 19, with a 6 inch extension and a breaker bar, or impact wrench as these nuts are really tight.

There are 2 more on the front of the diff. They will have giant washers, and bushings above them. Once these are removed you then need to remove the breather hose ontop of the diff, you will then be able to pull out the diff, then pull out the axles. (Sorry, didn't take pics, might take some later?)

8. With the diff removed, you can now drain it (if you didn't already) and then proceed to remove the diff cover, as you will need to put it onto the J30 diff so it can fit into your car. A quick side by side comparison should show you the difference.



9. Take the cover over to a parts washer (Or something to the same effect. all it is, is solvent, brushes, steel wire brush, scotch bright, and a scraper). and your end result should look something like this.

10. Time to repeat the process in reverse. slap in the axles, followed by the VLSD, and so on back in the same order. Don't forget the diff fluid. for mine I used Red line 80w 90 and you fill it until oil weeps out of the fill hole.

11. GET OUT THERE AND TEST THAT VLSD!!!!!!! I DO NOT CONDONE STREET RACING/DRIFTING and I will not be accountable for any of your actions regarding street driving and installation of your VLSD.

Give me some feedback if you like

[hbpignosePA]

nice write up, but ur pictures are waaay too big...

good job thou

[CRIPES]

did you just swap the whole pumpkin or did you swap the guts??

i want someone to write up how hard/easy it is to swap the J30 guts into an s14 pumpkin... i have a J30 vlsd on mine right now, but i've heard that if you run it w/o the abs drive shaft for too long you'll **** up your rear main seal... i'd like to know if swapping the j30 into the s14 is easy enough...

[tctomasc]

Ya, I swapped the whole pumpkin, and I didn't know that about the drive shaft. swapping the J30 was easy enough, but without a breaker bar or air tools its gonna be a pain. So get proper tools.

[Chris28]

Haha make sure you check both the cover and the pumpkin for old gasket, I didn't and ended up having to pull it out again to scrape the gasket off and put some silicon gasket maker stuff on it. Also, if you are using the 5 bolt diff and axles, then you can re-use your 6-bolt bolts, but the diameter is different. Whenever I go from reverse to 1st or vice versa, there is a clunking sound coming from the axles because they can move a little bit due to the diameter of the bolt hole vs. the diameter of the bolt. I guess at some point I should fix this, just a heads up for people that do this and re-use the same bolts. Good write up, op!

[Dittoz7]

Thanks Thinking Of Doing This...

More Info For Me!

[Nacho_240]

Just what I was looking for. Great write up.

p.s. where can I find a parts washer? autozone maybe...

[Chris28]

I just used a powerwasher and some engine degreaser. Just make sure you dry it out really well before putting it back together.

[tctomasc]

I just used a powerwasher and some engine degreaser. Just make sure you dry it out really well before putting it back together.

Ya, You can just let it sit in some degreaser and it will be perfect. But I'm sure autozone has some other products.