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Limited slip diff


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Good morning to everyone. Has anyone fitted, or has had fitted a Quaife limited slip diff to their tr6? Last year I fitted one that was supplied by a well known supplier in the TR world. I fitted it to a friends car here in France. The car is an early CC model 1969 fitted with a completely rebuilt PI engine and j type overdrive gearbox. Together with standard drive shafts and UJ,s from the same supplier. I fitted the diff last year and thought it was a fit and forget, boy was I wrong! My friend has just covered 1000 miles when there were some horrible sounds coming from the back end. The diff upon inspection had a serious amount of play and two of the UJ,s were also rattling. So I changed UJs and did a test run. The noise was better but still bad so I decided to send it back under guarantee to the supplier. The turn around time was superb and the supplier was very helpful and said that there was a problem( not really specified) but they had changed bearings had a look at the lsd and rebuilt the diff at no cost. When I got it home here it was tight and I and my friend were very happy. The diff was tight when turned by hand etc etc. I refitted it and on the test run out about 10 miles  everything was ok. However yesterday I was at the Grand Prix de Pau about 50 miles from where I live and on return the car was acting very peculiar, it felt like it was always trying to slow down and a noise returned to the drive train transmitting through the gear lever at first then to the engine. At first it felt like the car was running on 5 cylinders. When I arrived home it was straight on the car lift and I checked the engine first, no probs but the the diff now has quite a bit of backlash and acts like a normal diff as in the right had wheel spins freely when turned fast by hand the left is stationary when the left is turned the same speed the right hand turns at the same time? The noise in the diff is a clunk and is inside the rear of the diff, but more than that one of the brand new UJs has now a lot of play - coincidence or diff related I wonder? When I replaced the diff the first time with a standard unit the car ran  fantastically well. I am now a little stumped on why this would happen on a diff that has done just over 100 miles. Can someone give me any suggestions please. Clem

 

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Whilst i cannot comment on the technicalities i can say that the Quaiffe lsd in my car has been there for 20 years and works reliably.

i do get the occasional noise from the diff, mainly when pulling away after a long deceleration or reverse

i had ujs but converted to cvs a few years ago

apart from occasional oil changes , and one seal change in 2013 when i bought the car, i’ve not touched the diff in 10k miles

good luck getting a result!

steve

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Thanks Steve, that’s good to know. For me I think it’s a matter of setting the shims inside. I worry that the work was done by the person that did the diff in the first place. This time I think I will ask for an independent report of the failure. Of course I am unable to contact the supplier today as they are closed.

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No consolation to you, but from having used various Quaife products over the years the quality of them IMO has reduced to the point where I and a number of people involved in building more modern gearboxes, diffs etc tried to avoid them like the plague unless there is no alternative as Quaife's customer service from my own experience was poor to say the least.

If the LSD turns out to beyond repair I'd look elsewhere if you can. 

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Those of you using LSD diffs do I presume know to use proper LSD oil as they really dont like normal gear oil.

Stuart.

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1 minute ago, stuart said:

Those of you using LSD diffs do I presume know to use proper LSD oil as they really dont like normal gear oil.

Stuart.

Good point Stuart and yes, its something like B383 if i recall?

steve

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Hi all thanks for the replies, Stuart I thought about the oil and asked the question of the builder and supplier of said diff. The e mail I received that the oil to be used was normal diff oil, also on the quaife website it says 75/80 so I don't think the oil is a problem, but I know there are other diffs that require special LSD oil.  

Having removed the diff yesterday and left it overnight in the garage. it is now as tight as a drum! almost too tight. So it has gone from rattling and noises coming from inside when I arrived back to being so tight it is difficult to turn by hand.  I am going to call the supplier to see if I can take the back off and have a look inside to see if the oil has turned to slurry or if there are any bits in the bottom of the housing. My concern is that I did not get a report from the first time it went back to explain why there were noises coming from the diff, just a "well all of the bearings and seals were replaced and we couldn't really find anything wrong"  No dimensional checks, no list of items replaced no mention of whether the unit had been mis-assembled.

My friend now is really concerned that he paid a lot of money for something that has failed twice and in his eyes is likely to fail again. first failure after 1000 miles second after 100 miles. who wouldn't be? at the moment I have replaced the diff with a standard one and we shall go from there.

Nick - Nissan conversion? where do I get some good info on that, it may be the way ahead after this is resolved.

Thanks again all for inputs, hopefully I can update after a call this morning to the supplier. Clem   

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I have a quaife in my race 250 with no problem.

you mentioned plates may need adjusting. there are no plates in a quaife  as it is torque dias . so with one wheel lifted of the ground it will spin like a standard one.Only when both on the ground do they lock up . I have known one failure that was a small part inside which ment the diff worked as standard.

 

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Roy

they do a plate type now.

The tran-x and it’s more like the old style as it locks even with a wheel off. ( so they say)

i have an eye on these but unfortunately serious money that’s without fitting !! So it’s an aspiration  

https://www.quaife.co.uk/quaife-products/plate-type-limited-slip-differential/

Edited by Hamish
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39 minutes ago, roy53 said:

Thanks for that Hamish. You live and learn. I knew about tran x but they were a different company then i thought.

Probably a buy out !!

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Dear all, just to feedback the work I have done, I changed the diff for  a standard 3.45:1 one and have just been for a quick run, flipping heck it’s a new car!  No noise no straining just a beautiful smooth drive my french friend will be impressed when he comes on Thursday to collect it. I am 100% sure the diff has had it, so now just got to get it back to the supplier in the UKand await the reason why.  Maybe it’s time to leave Quaife diffs alone.?

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7 hours ago, elclem1 said:

Maybe it’s time to leave Quaife diffs alone.?

+1 and anything else with their name on it

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