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Hi all
I know what a locked / welded rear diff will do in the "loose stuff",but how will it affect the "on - road" manners of a vehicle?
Drive - line and / or tyre wear?
Comments appreciated.
Cheers

A welded rear diff is, in effect, not a differential, as it forces both back wheels to turn at the same speed. Going around bends will cause the inside wheel to spin and hop around. Eventually the weld (or something else in that area) will break. That's why you should remove one driveshaft when on road with a welded diff.

GOD wrote:A welded rear diff is, in effect, not a differential, as it forces both back wheels to turn at the same speed. Going around bends will cause the inside wheel to spin and hop around. Eventually the weld (or something else in that area) will break. That's why you should remove one driveshaft when on road with a welded diff.

Thanks GOD,I understand that it's not a "real"differential once welded.........not trying to be "funny",but how do you "remove a driveshaft"...........I'm not a real mechanical genius!.....is this ok for normal on - road driving?
cheers

have a search through some threads and you should find somewhere explaining how to remove a driveshaft for onroad.

search.php?searchid=180001

well mate a few of us with our older wagons remove one of the rear cv's so that the wheels can spin at different rates on the road- its easy to do- and because they are fwd on the road it makes no difference to on road handling.

thanx guy's......appreciated!
cheers

drivers side rear shaft is always the easiest to remove i've found.

I've driven in 4WD with a welded rear diff on the road... Turning was a little harder at intersections, and it was impossible to park in the carpark.

I've talked to a few people who have used a welded rear diff in their little subie rigs without removing the driveshaft and they only said you have to be a little more careful driving. Tyre wear will be more, but they didn't say it was bad or anything.

In AWD cars welding the rear diff is pointless, it just puts more strain on the centre diff and forces a front wheel to spin.

Also note that it puts extra stress on all the rear diff mount bushes, the diff hanger itself, and the driveshafts and CV's. A few people in WA (Lapsed, Vidler - same car actually) have snapped a driveshaft clean in half, but granted this was while offroading.

I think holding out for an LSD even a viscous one's better than a "CIG/BOC Locker" . Locked differentials do horrible things to body and suspension - and axles too .

Cheers A .

i agree disco but a welded job is cheaper and easier that re ratioing an lsd

I've talked to people who have had CLSD's (which give more traction offroad then VLSD's) in the rear as well as welded diff and they said although the LSD is good, the traction from the welded diff is far better.

LSD FTW...my car kicks arse with a lsd.

alex

What type of LSD are you using alex?

Cheers

Bennie

Alex is using an old clutchpack one from an RX. I'm using one the same in my wagon too, stole it from my RX :P
The RX uses a Viscus one from a Legacy RS now.

can the clutches in the diff be upgraded/beefed up?

twilightprotege wrote:can the clutches in the diff be upgraded/beefed up?

im going to look into getting mine 're-shimmed' soon. Will make it alot tighter. Not sure about the cost tho.

anything is better than a standard open diff. The difference when i put the lsd in was remarkable. Im just not a fan of lockers(taking shafts in and out etc) also the extra wear on tyres and k-frame etc.

alex

I had welded diff once in my Liberty, not worth it on the road since the tyres wore out lot faster than front due on road driving (75% on road 25% off road) I noticed it handles better off road as you could tell but take it easy around corners but you can get in control easily.

The cons was - parking, around the bends at intersections and you'll get the shudder feeling and it made me worry about braking a drive shaft or something, I had it for about 4 months and took it out and installed VLSD, but found out that VLSD was worn out and didn't bother mucking around ever since.

I still prefer driving around with LSD as you know that you wont get into trouble while off road, also still hunting down CLSD for my wagon.
Cheers
AP