'79 210 (b310) axle/diff swaps?

[Yung_Cloud]

I'm building '79 210 (2 door sedan) with my dad, and my goal is to have it sideways around the corners of any mountain road I can find (drift build). He wants to swap in a roadster rear end (which we already have lying around) but it has leaf springs but the car currently has rear coil springs and I don't really wanna convert from coils to leaf. Any suggestions on easy-ish/accessable swaps that will give me disc brakes AND a coil spring setup? I'm willing to reinforce the chassis shock absorber mounts for coilover style suspension, since I've heard that's a thing that's needed for that. Pics included: https://imgur.com/gallery/TeXx9E7

[datzenmike]

Have a look at the '80-'81 S110 200sx which had an H-165 diff with disc brakes. Then there is the ''82-'83 S110 200sx with the larger H-190 differential with discs. The H-190 would allow a wider choice of truck gears up to 4.875. The '84 (first year) S12 anso had the H-190 but I don't know if it's wider than the S110.

 

If you have a Roadster axle just convert to 4 link and coils.

[Yung_Cloud]

Ok, thanks datzenmike! I didn't even think about didn't even think about converting the roadster axle to 4 link haha. I'll check with my dad, also I'll check to see if it's the h165 or h190 diff. I'm sure it has drum brakes, so how could I go about swapping discs on?

[datzenmike]

Roadsters were H-190. Probably aluminum case with 3.889 and rarely they had LSD. Forget the disc brakes.

[Yung_Cloud]

Ok, thanks for the help!

[pdp8]

I used to commute up and down eighteen miles of a road on a mountain that was originally built for horses, so somewhat even grade but with some hundreds of turns.  I drove it pretty hard with a somewhat modded engine but pretty stock suspension apart from lowering things a bit and changing to wider tires.  I found the rear brakes and axle very capable of doing what needed to be done but the front suspension was what couldn't keep up.  The light weight of that car is your biggest asset, it means you can change direction without your inertia pulling you all over the place.  Every ounce you add to the car you are giving up that best asset so I'd suggest you concentrate on things that really are worth it.

If you really feel you must have disc brakes in the back, check over on the 1200 forum since it's very nearly the same axle and Doug has been working hard on a bolt-on kit to run disc brakes on the 1200 so it might need little or no modification to work with the 210.  I think he said it was going to cost him about 5lbs per side, which is a lot for these cars but might be lighter than the alternatives.