What kind of rear axle on the 280zx?

[roflwaffles]

What kind is it? Is it a live rear axle? or is it some other kind? I'm not really familiar with the types of rear axles.

[81na ZX]

Most are R200's with CV axles (200mm ring gear, much stronger axles than the early U-joint ones). I think some autos came with a R180 (180mm ring gear)

[evildky]

yup dependes on the year, all 79-83 280ZX's had independent rear suspension, (actually all 70-2007 z cars have always had only independent rear suspension) but the 280ZX used a trailing arm setup, some of the early models had the R180 and u-jointed halfshafts, and later ones all had the R200 with CV halfshafts

[roflwaffles]

Could someone enlighten me as to what that all means?

[evildky]

a traditional solid axle is still found on trucks and some large RWD cars, simply you have one solid axle with a differential in the middle and a wheel on each end, IRS or Independant Rear Suspension, has been around for many years, all Z's ever made have IRS, they just changed the type, in early cars they used a strut housing tied to the center of the car with a lower control arm and half shafts com off a center mounted Differential to the stub axles attached to each strut housing, so each wheel can move freely up and down without effecting the other, hence the Independant part of the name, in the 79-89 they use a trailing arm set in where in the lower control arms were mounted to the car in front of the wheels which allowed the wheel to "trail" and they upgraded the halfshafts to CV's from the U-jointes found on earlier cars, the 90- present models use a unequal length upper and lower control arms coming from the center of the car but without the need fro a strut, they use only a shock to dampen the movement

[twoeightythreez]

The U-jointed axles on the S30's are certainly not weak...just weaker than the later CV joint axles. In fact, if you keep the angles down (the U-jointed axle's weakness) e.g. keep the U-joints as straight as possible....the U-jointed axles will live happily behind a built V-8 in a Z car. Nissan doesn't know HOW to build weak axles...just transmissions good thing they build strong trannies (300zx) too