Diff input shaft to chassis alignment

[PodOne]

Afternoon fellow lock downers

Before I go taking this apart I thought I'd ask.

The Shell is off to go for blasting so the chassis is visible and I'm planning to beef up the front bridge another poor offering from Rimmers which after welding in place turned out has the opening on the front for the prop shaft on the wrong side! Plus the bridge spring hangers are made out of thinner gauged steel and have a weld across that is prone to cracking which is no good either.

Anyway while having a quick look as you do and looking at the mounted diff from the top the diff input flange in relation to the chassis/top plate is off centre by around 1-2 inches to one side in relation to the inner tyre walls. I know the prop  UJ's would compensate but it doesn't seem right.

The chassis and diff pins etc measures square. I've tried looking for pics but nothing clearly shows the issue.

I wonder if I've managed to some how reassembled the cast iron diff case up side down if that makes sense.

So before I take some pics is the diff meant to be off set?

Thanks

Andy

[John L]

Andy

You could ask CTM, who make the chassis, from a quick look in the manual the rear and front pins are equal distant from the centre line of the chassis, does that help?

John

[scousegit]

Andy, the nose diff is offset to the offside when mounted on the chassis.

Jon.

[stuart]

It is offset.

Stuart.

 

[PodOne]

Hi Both

John the pins/bridge are in the correct position.

Jon so your saying the prop if at 90 degrees from the diff nose/ flange is to the off side is normal?

Very strange way to design a rear end you would think the nose would line up with the centre of the chassis/gear box. 

Andy

 

 

[stuart]

2 minutes ago, PodOne said:

Hi Both

John the pins/bridge are in the correct position.

Jon so your saying the prop if at 90 degrees from the diff nose/ flange is to the off side is normal?

Very strange way to design a rear end you would think the nose would line up with the centre of the chassis/gear box. 

Andy

 

 

See my picture above

Stuart

[stuart]

[PodOne]

1 minute ago, stuart said:

It is offset.

Stuart.

 

Thanks Stuart so it is offset for a while I thought I'd buggered up somehow. A strange way to design a car!

[stuart]

Just now, PodOne said:

Thanks Stuart so it is offset for a while I thought I'd buggered up somehow. A strange way to design a car!

Most rear drives are the same.

Stuart.

[Z320]

With the ingoing shaft of the diff in line with the gearbox you will have 2 different lengths of the driveshafts.

You can decide what makes more sence....

[reginald]

Hello

My brother is building a mk1 group4 rally car he was told that the prop from gearbox to diff should not be completely 

In line as this can cause vibration but should be staggered, may be different with a fixed diff like TR

Richard

[PodOne]

3 hours ago, reginald said:

Hello

My brother is building a mk1 group4 rally car he was told that the prop from gearbox to diff should not be completely 

In line as this can cause vibration but should be staggered, may be different with a fixed diff like TR

Richard

As Stuart says common but I can't remember MX5 having an offset and the diff is fixed to the rear sub frame and power plant ladder that acts like a torque tube which bolts to the gear box. Main thing is I haven't balls up (yet)!

Thanks all

Andy

[rcreweread]

Hi - you can see the offset clearly on the front mounting bracket in attached photos

Cheers Rich

[Z320]

Hi,

if you look inside how a diff works you realize it always causes an offset in any way,

either on the shafts from the gearbox to the diff or on the drive shafts.

Ciao, Marco