on my 89, does my diff have a fill and drain plug?

[lbrowne]

I can't find anything on the 240sx faq. I'm certain the last time I had the rear of the car in the air I noticed a drain plug. I'm thinking there must be a fill plug as well.

I'm thinking of changing this fluid this weekend myself, if not its off to the Lube shop.

So is there a chance that I could have one of 2 setups on this car? either have to remove the diff cover or have drain/fill plugs.

thanks,

lbrowne

[NeedCAforS13]

if you look at the diff from behind you will see the drain plug there on the bottom... go up and to the left, just around the corner is the fill plug:)

Sean

[lbrowne]

Thanks man, is it easy to do on your own sorta thing? Like is the fill plug easy to use or is it complete 'fuqery' to position a bottle to fill it?

[NeedCAforS13]

I work at Nissan, so I did mine on a lift and yep, it was easy...

But no, its gonna be hard for you to fill it with a bottle... I used a 50 gallon drum of gear oil with a hose attached to it to fill mine... I really don't think you can get a bottle up in there!

Sean

[lbrowne]

Theres gotta be something I can get to pump this stuff in there

How much of what do you put in there? I asked this a while ago but since you work at nissan...

PLUS this car is going to see EXTREME cold conditions, I'm talkin -45 degrees celsius in the winter....not sure what that is in farenheit.

[NeedCAforS13]

uhmm I did like 10 or 15 pumps? I dunno... I din't measure it? I filled it till it came back out the fill hole! And if you have an LSD make sure you add lsd addative to your gear oil:)

Sean

[lbrowne]

Hahah, forgot you filled it with the hose form that drum

I honestly do not know if I have an LSD, its an 89 coupe thats as base as a base model can get. Is there a way i can figure out by the VIN number sumthin?

[NeedCAforS13]

no coupes had lsd's IIRC?

Sean

[lbrowne]

whats IIRC?

Are you certain no coupes had this option from the factory?

[NeedCAforS13]

If I recall correctly... and no I'm not certain for Canadian cars... I know no US coupe's had them!

[lbrowne]

Would there be a marking of some sort on the car anywhere? Indicating if it had one or not?

[NeedCAforS13]

maybe if it still has the orange lsd sticker on the diff itself... the silvia one I got didn't have it anymore? but do this... go jack up the back of your car:

take it out of gear with the parking brake off... have someone spin one tire, and you hold the other... my lsd is EXTREMELY hard to hold one tire and spin the other, while my old open diff was cake! go try it out:)

Sean

[RobDET]

the s14 is a coupe with LSD

I have a coupe that didn't have LSD. But my JDM one had a big orange sticker that said "VLSD"

[lbrowne]

my sticker, if it had one, is probably long worn off. I'll take a look for one, and if I don't see it I'll do the rear tires in the air one person spinning thing.

so if I have an open diff, one tire should spin easily while the other side not move at all....

[NeedCAforS13]

if you have an open, they will be very easy to spin independently of each other

if you have an lsd, they will want to turn together



Sean

[lbrowne]

thanks for almost realtime responses in this thread

:thumbup

[chrissa]

Hey lbrowne,

I'm a little south of you, but I still have to put up with the crappy Canadian winters too. Check this link out. This shows a VLSD next to an open diff. If you look at the pic of the open diff, you can see the fill hole just to the right of the top edge of the vertical fins. The drain hole is directly underneath the fin on the back cover. Both plugs come off easy with a 1/2" ratchet stuck in the square hole.

Pics of Differentials

An '89 Canadian 240SX does not have a VLSD in it (neather did any '90). All 91+ Canadian 240s have VLSDs (coupe or fastback).

To get the the diff fluid in, you can get a cheap little plastic hand pump from Canadian Tire. I used it to fill my transmission the last time I did the fluid.

[NeedCAforS13]

Those pictures are odd... so different looking! my lsd and my open diff look IDENTICAL! maybe someone swapped the lsd internals into an open diff in japan? I dunno...

Sean

[chrissa]

Now that's interesting. Which do your diffs look like? Both were out of Canadian 240s. Both were OEM.

[NeedCAforS13]

Mine both look like your open one. My open one was from a 93 240sx coupe, and my LSD came with a Silvia clip that I got from an engine importing friend of mine:)

Sean

[chrissa]

Yeah, it could be a VLSD out of a different type of Nissan. Lots of people would put in LSDs from Infiniti. To get them to fit, they had to re-use the rear cover from the old open diff. That'd explain where the orange sticker went.

[NeedCAforS13]

very true! I just got it b/c it had the same output (6 bolts) that my open diff had, so I didn't need new axles too!

Sean

[lbrowne]

My diff is definitely the one on the right in those first couple of pics. So open diff it is...

How much fluid should I buy.

I was going to fetch some extra cash for Amisol since i'm doing it myself. I'll get the hand pump, I was thinking about that today.

So 75w90 for the rear diff? That what I use?

[chrissa]

That weight sounds fine. I think the FSM says the '89 open diff takes 1.3L of oil. The VLSD took 1.7L when I filled it. Fluid is usually sold in 1L bottles.

[lbrowne]

Thanks for all the help, so chrissa I heard theres a new jdm shop opened in Calgary....been there yet?

[chrissa]

Quote »so chrissa I heard theres a new jdm shop opened in Calgary....been there yet? [/quote]

No, I haven't. Honestly, I have no idea what the local import car scene in Calgary is like at all. I've only really taken an interest in my 240 in the last few months (and I've had this car for 10 years). My car shares the garage with four motorcycles, so you can imagine where most of my time is spent. Hell, in that photo of the two diffs, you can see the 240 in the background, including the trailer hitch on it! My car gets used to haul bikes back and forth to the local race track. People are always wondering when I'm gonna get a truck, but the 240 is way too much fun to drive to give it up. I may have the only bike hauler at the local track with a B&M short shifter! I'll see if I can find this local shop and I'll check it out.

[lbrowne]

Ahhh shiat, maybe they're in toronto...heres the link and just follow it form there.

http://www.performance-shop.co...31309

sorry for the confusion

Davenport Racing is in Calgary so I assumed.

[lbrowne]

How do you fill the diff? till it comes out the fill plug?

for whatever reason unknown, i was thinking the fill plug was on top, and that I would fill it right to the brim...but that makes no sense now that i think of it.

[NeedCAforS13]

Fill it up to the top of the fill plug hole... stop when it starts coming out the hole... its the one on the side of the diff...

[lbrowne]

I don't have vlsd, I have the one with the plugs on the back plate...in those pics posted earlier...its the one on the right.