I have been away on vacation, and did not bring my computer to the
beach at Cape Cod. I have been catching up on the FOT emails and the
thread about the diffs. and figured that I would give my 2 cents
worth.
When welding, it is best to weld similar metals together, which is why
you would want to weld the gears together rather than the gears to the
casing, in addition to being able to replace the gears (as was
previously noted on the list). I had welded gears in my Spit, and it
handled great, but it was a pain to push around the paddock. My buddy
with a Spridget has a welded diff, and swears by it, not at it. From
what I have read in the technical books, at track speeds and the slip
angles that race cars run at, that the lack of differential action is
not detrimental and keeping power going to both wheels is a definite
plus. As long as the front end is set up to work with the locked diff
it all works.
My TR3 as a Detroit Locker, and I have had 4.1, 4.3 and 4.8 gears on
it. When cornering under power, it acts as if the diff is welded up,
because it is locked up. On slow corners (I tried it at an autox
once) it is plow city, just like a welded diff would be, but with a
heavy enough right foot I could do 360's all day. With the detroit
locker it is easier to push around the paddock, garage etc, and as
Hardy mentioned, you can lift to unlock it on the track.
If a current Detroit Locker could be found that would fit (or be made
to fit) the TR diff casing, the problem would probably getting the
right splines. With the Southwick axle conversion, we can have axles
made with any spline (for the solid axle cars). Going to a larger
spline would be an advantage, since the TR splines are on the small
side, and the stock ones have been known to twist or break, and
although this apparently has not been a problem yet with the Southwick
axles, it is still a weak link. Joe(B)
----- Original Message -----
From: William G Rosenbach <wgrosenbach@juno.com>
To: <spitlist@gte.net>
Cc: <wgrosenbach@juno.com>; <rocky@tri.net>; <mwilder@top.monad.net>;
<fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 10:44 PM
Subject: Re: welded difs
> Have seen people still welding the whole unit. If you do it that way
and
> don't do it right, they break. Then you have real junk.
>
> Bill
>
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 17:20:06 -0700 Joe Curry <spitlist@gte.net>
writes:
> > I thought that is how everyone welds up their differentials. That
is
> > indeed how I did it!
> >
> > Joe
> >
> > William G Rosenbach wrote:
> > >
> > > There is a low cost, reversible alternative to welding your
> > differential.
> > > It is something the drag racers have done for years. By welding
in
> > some
> > > of the teeth on the spider gears so they no longer rotate you
get
> > a
> > > locked unit. Want to unlock it? Just replace the spider gears.
> > This way
> > > you can find out if you like it locked or not. It's cheap too.,
> > and
> > > doesn't destroy a part that is becoming rarer.
> > >
> > > Just a thought,
> > > Bill
>
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