THE NEW KAAZ LSD

At the end of 2006 I decided that I needed an LSD in the 300zx. There was a lot of wheelspin out of all of the corners at Mallalla and when I looked in the rearview mirror, all I saw was smoke. I considered the secondhand options and it wouldn’t have been too difficult to pick up a Nissan clutch unit from the wreckers. The only problem with this was that this type of LSD has not been fitted for 20 years or so, and it was likely that they would be more than tired.

A look around the internet and various forums indicated that there were several options including Nispro,Kaaz and Torsen.(similar to the type fitted to S15 200sx) I ruled out Torsen almost immediately, mainly on price, but one would have to reconsider if a diff was required for a nice smooth roadcar. It turned out that Kaaz was readily available from the agent on the Port Rd , and there was virtually no difference in price with Nispro.

There were no problems with the fit up and the man did the bearing job on the pinion etc at the same time. There is a tedious run-in procedure for the LSD that requires 30 min of figure eights at about 20ks. Sounds simple, but it is difficult to find a quiet spot that is big enough to swing the car around. Problem is that everyone who sees you thinks that you are a dreaded hoon, and no matter how careful you are, the diff clanks and bangs as the clutches try to slip with every turn. Eventually I gave up and went into the bush to find a more isolated spot. That worked out ok,but I have to say that the running in didn’t seem to do much at all to ease the clunks and jerking.

I ran the car over a period of days in order to get some miles on the new bearings and the LSD seemed to work really well on fast corners with a bit of speed, but it was a real animal on anything slow and tight at below 40k.I noticed that there was virtually no noise first thing in the morning when the oil was cold, but that didn’t last after warm up. Anyway the first Sprint came up on 25/3 and I found during practice that the wheelspin was gone and the car was easier to drive out of corners. Got a 1 second improvement and I reckon there will be another to get, so I am quite happy with the outcome.

Other observations are that my LSD is what’s described as a 2-way(see Kaaz web-site for description of 1.5 way and 2 way) Some people writing on various forums seem to be preoccupied with the difficulties that the 2-way presents and go to some lengths to point out that they are difficult to drive on trailing throttle and contribute to excessive understeer. I can assure you that I experienced none of these difficulties and my best guess is that the people complaining were driving front drivers, probably Hondas in the US.?

Anyway feel free to phone me on 82642804 if you have any queries on the Kaaz or more importantly how to get the 300zx ready for sprinting.

Barry Hawke?

Nissan Datsun Car Club SA?