I have my S2000 taken apart. I recently took out my fuel tank as I will be running a new fuel system. With the fuel tank removed, there is a *ton of space* in the rear of the car now. In addition, with the rear sub frame removed, it would be very easy to mount a new differential. So I was looking around at various options and Kane and I came up with the Dana 44 from the C4 Corvette, and also the Mustang Corba (1999-2004) with IRS. The Cobra rear end mounts similar enough to the S2000 where I could make it work.

My only concern is making a new driveshaft (or modifying the stock one) and axles. Does anyone have any insight on this? I was told that I could chop the stock driveshaft in half, and mate (weld) it with a mustang driveshaft and have it balanced at a local shop. I imagine you could do the same with the axles. My main concern would be to make sure that it was perfectly straight when I welded them together.

I know with the Dana 44 rear end, you can remove the "yokes" (part attached to the diff that bolts to the axles) and then we could have a custom place machined so that the stock axles could mount to it. I wonder if this is possible with the Cobra rear end...

OK, so that's what's going through my head now.. give me your thoughts!!!!

PS- I am interested in making a kit for other people to do this easily. kthxbbq

 

nice idea, any pics of the area w/ the tank and subframe removed? id like to see how much room there is.

 

My digital camera is in storage.. but basically if you take out the spare tire, that sheet of metal and below is completely empty.. there is probably around.. 30" or so before you get to the bottom of the car. Also, the way the frame is, it would appear that you could cut away that sheet metal and not really lose much rigidity.... anyways, I am installing a fuel cell probably this weekend, and all of that space will be freed up.. I found a cobra IRS diff within a 2 hour drive, so I am thinking about checking that out as well..... If I had the parts I could probably get it working in 4-5 hours... drag launches ahoy..

(till the trans goes snap! woo..)

Good to see that there are more than 2 people in the "Technical" forum, I was beginning to lose interest/faith in the s2000 dream....

 

The guys at driveshaftshop.com can create you just about anything you want I'm sure. I really want to see where this goes. cjb80, why are you doing all this? What type of racing are you doing? We should talk.

-kM

 

A driveshaft shop can make up a new driveshaft. You will need to make sure the new driveshaft has the S2K CV's on either end, or uni joints of both ends. If you mix and match a CV with a Uni you will get vibration.

While you are changing the diff I would suggest using the Covette halfshafts to the wheels. You may have to get a engineering shop to respline the outer end of the Covette halfshafts to suit the S2K outer CV joints. If you are lucky you may be able to mix and match something to suit. Ideally once you mix and match the halfshafts will be a little short and leave room for an adapter plate/block between the diff flanges and halfshafts.

Sounds like an interesting project. Worth spending the time digging around to find the elusive halfshaft/CV combination.

Chris.

 

A driveshaft shop can make up a new driveshaft. You will need to make sure the new driveshaft has the S2K CV's on either end, or uni joints of both ends. If you mix and match a CV with a Uni you will get vibration.

While you are changing the diff I would suggest using the Covette halfshafts to the wheels. You may have to get a engineering shop to respline the outer end of the Covette halfshafts to suit the S2K outer CV joints. If you are lucky you may be able to mix and match something to suit. Ideally once you mix and match the halfshafts will be a little short and leave room for an adapter plate/block between the diff flanges and halfshafts.

Sounds like an interesting project. Worth spending the time digging around to find the elusive halfshaft/CV combination.

Chris.

 

The Corvette half shafts look like they are about 3" thick tubes unfortunatly...

At this point I think I am going to throw in the stock differential (along with the rest of the rear sub frame) and use it for the time being. The Cobra rear end has uni joints, so I guess that is not the best option.

The 350z rear end appears to be very strong from what I have seen and also there are alot of aftermarket differntials available for it already. They have the same style of CV joint however (with the three wheels) and they are breaking also.

I sent in a request for a quote on a complete differential from Nissan, so if that has some potential then I will go that route. The axles are similar, so the drive shaft will likely have a similar setup as well. I am going to guess that there is enough room to make an adapter plate to adapt the stock driveshaft to the Nissan diff....

It only takes me about 25 mins to pull out the whole rear end of the car now that I know how to do it, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal to mess around with the diff in the future.

If anyone has any additional thoughts or info, please feel free to comment.

Chris

 

I was thinking of using the rx-7 differential out of an fd3s rx7. it mounts up similarly ive been looking at one alot today, im changing the clutch on my buddys. the driveshaft shop has already made s2000 axles on a prototype basis and are designing a driveshaft for it as well. my other thought was to use the 300zx twin turbo rear end. i think the rx7 rear end is small enough where even some one with the stock fuel tank could run them. i think that the hardest aspect of getting a new rear end in to the s2000 is to get one to fit and mounted properly getting the axles and driveshaft made is'nt going to be that hard in my opinion. im sure either the driveshaft shop or a similar company willmake them for some one.

 

Do you consider a diff from an Evo4/6 which comes with AYC. I have lots of technical material related to these cars.

Here is some info LINK

 

trip i dont think the evo 4 or 6 is a good option as we cant readily get those diffs over in america. also the mitsubishi drive train components aren't very strong and have problem with holding the power the evo makes. Also the AYC is a system that really doesn't apply to the s2000, it is an active yaw control system meant for cars with all wheel drive