FWIW -- when I finally "used up" my old No-Spin in the Spitfire, and no
other limited slip readily available at the time, we welded one up. I'm fine
with it.
I race it GP, autocross it DP. It's been that way several years now. I quit
looking for limited slips.
Biggest "problem" is turning the car when pushing it.
No big deal when driving it under power, just a little more raap-raap on the
throttle and slipping the clutch to get it to make a tight turn in the
paddock (outta my way!).
On course/on track, it works great. No, I do not see any real handling
deficiency when autocrossing. The speeds are not "lower" enough to matter.
"Lower" IMHO it is in the minus-15 mph range that it is a problem and we
don't autox down there any more these days. OTOH, it puts the power down to
both wheels 'stead of just the inside one (with unmodified) or mostly the
outside one (with lim slip).
I've broken one inner axle on the Spitfire since I put in the welded diff.
And that was the biggest problem I encountered. First of all, instead of
just driving the car on the one wheel I had left that got power (which I've
done many times with limited slip, even road racing), now it still insisted
on driving both axles which meant it really chewed up the bearing and all in
the broken stub axle and ended my race. And then, unlike the lim-slip days
when I could pop out the broken-off stub with a magnet, or at worst open the
other side and drive it through with a drift, now there was NO WAY because
it was solid through there. An inner axle change I've often done before in
about an hour took me 12 hours (completely dismantled the rear end in the
paddock -- but I raced the next day!). As a result, next time I had the
thing out, I took it to a machine shop and had them drill a hole through the
weld that I could get my drift through.
IMHO, go ahead and weld the sucker, but drill an access hole through it.
--Rocky
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Wilder <mwilder@top.monad.net>
To: fot@autox.team.net <fot@autox.team.net>
Date: Friday, July 20, 2001 11:07 AM
Subject: welded difs
>Hi,
>
>So what's the opinion on welding the differential. I know atleast one
>sprite autocrossing regionally has his welded. How does it affect
handling?
>I was thinking it might be kinda tough on the axles on my 4a live axle.
>After reading some of the recent posts on the Detroit lockers it sounds
like
>it would be a better choice for Auto-x than the Quafe but welding it solid
>would definitely keep the inside from spinning.
>
>Matthew Wilder
>'67 TR4a E-prepared auto-xer
>http://top.mcttelecom.com/~mwilder/
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