How do I make my diff stronger?

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Phil

Phil

Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Threads
6
Messages
38
Location
Wollongong, Australia.
Gday all.

I have a live axle 100 (105) series (not an 80 but the front diff is very similar) and smashed the ring and pinion on the weekend. I've tracked down another diff and would like to know what I can do to this diff before I put it in to stop this happening again.

I've heard that an air locker would beef things up and reduce loading the diff as much. (can't afford this at the moment)

I've also heard that getting a solid pinion spacer machined up would also help. My mechanic didn't seem to think this is needed.

Would the reduction of work that the front diff does with a part time kit make the diff stronger for longer?
Does anyone know (FROM EXPERIENCE) what problems these kits give to the ABS?( I've searched heaps of sites but no one has mentioned any actual bad affects on braking)

I can't afford to spend heaps on grafting different centers in and also would like to keep as original as possible as I would like to know I can get parts easily if travelling.

Cheers Phil.
 
Cryo treating is supposed to help with R&P strength, but what did you do to break it in the first place? As far as I've seen, the only way anybody around here has broken an 80 diff is extracting in reverse.....
 
Tried to bump it over a rock that I was hooked on while going up a steep climb.

The poor old truck didn't like the foot of air under the front wheels.:doh:

My fault for trying to keep up with guys with much better trucks.

Cheers Phil.
 
sorry about what happened to your truck




while you are going to be under there, could you take some pics of your front suspension & post them up?

g'day back at you!!
 
At work at the moment. (I would go mad on night shift without the net)

I'll try to remember to take some shots tomorrow.
 
Put a Dana 60 under it!!:doh: just kidding (it WOULD make it stronger!!)

When you say "smashed" do you mean the outside was smashed into something? or did you shattter a Ring and pinion? c'mon mate work with us!!! did it break while spinning in the air and coming down onto a tractioned surface? did the flnage break at the neck othe the third member (break just the Pinion) did you run it out oil lube! (kidding) we have no idea of what to adress.

if you landed on your pinion flange the only way to stop that is to make some sort of gaurd under- but then you would be losing ground clearnd there (high pinion 3rds are pretty high) the air locker is a more stout unit. yes the solid pinion spacer is a must.
 
A bit of both.

I dented the guard that I fabricated on the front but broke some teeth when it grabbed traction.(standard casing wasn't damaged though)

I will have a look for marks on the pinion flange but I don't think it hit.

Haven't actually opened it up yet so it feels like there is about 3 teeth damaged so I'm not sure if it's the ring or the pinion.

Cheers Phil.
 
I thought the issue is more than poor ( if exist :D ) quality on R&P .. it happends and it can happen in a full cromo 4340 fron D60 .. if you want make a comparison .. be carefull next time.
 
Don't take this as an insult...the upgrade it sounds like you needed already happened: experience.

You upgrade the R&P in that situation and something else is going to blow. Fix your R&P and as money affords buy the things that help you stay off the skinny pedal like suspension and tire upgrades.

:cheers:

Nay
 
Thanks for that.

I'm only running 305/70/r16s at the moment and would like to go bigger but not sure now.

Didn't take it the wrong way as I know the main reason it went was the loud pedal and my inexperience with this truck.

EXPERIENCE IS SOMETHING YOU GAIN MOMENTS AFTER YOU NEED IT.

I'm just trying to get suggestions on how to make it a bit more Philproof (foolproof).

My best options at the moment are to put an air locker in the front so wheel spin wouldn't be needed in the same situation,

&/or graft a nissan center into it.

Cheers Phil.
 
g'Day Phil,

the things you HAVE to do are

Fit an ARB air locker, checked for run out, because ARB work on 20 thou as acceptable, we work on 8 thou.

Get a genuine toyota or asano gear set.

Have a solid pinion spacer machined which takes on the whole bearing face so the rollers dont smash the lip off.

Drill out the 8mm nuts and tap them for 10mm studs, same as the rear diff centre has holding it to the housing. [This also stops the oil leaking issues between 3 and 6 oclock on the centre where it meets the hosuing]

If you cant afford to do these things, stock up on 2nd hand parts if your wheeling hard.
 
If I was rebuilding a diff(and when I rebuilt mine) I would definately use a solid pinion spacer. It creates a little more work because you have to dial in the preload on the pinion with shims, instead of just torqueing it, but it will be MUCH stronger at the end. If I wasn't running big tires and 4.88s I wouldn't have bothered doing the cryo treatment that I did, so I probably wouldn't recommend it to you.

BTW, the solid spacers are readily available here in the states if the cost of machining one turns out to be too much. Dunno what shipping is like for a small package between the two continents, but it might be worth looking into. www.marlincrawler.com sells them.

Good luck!
 
One of the big contributors to gear death is gear deflection, the gears, carrier, housing, flexing under load, allowing the teeth contact to change, not getting full contact. A solid spacer will help. Some locals have had very good results from setting the carrier bearing preload much tighter than recommended, Zuk sets them at 100 ft lb!:eek: His setups get beat HARD in AZ rock with good results.:D

http://www.gearinstalls.com/freshen.htm

http://www.gearinstalls.com/
 
not to be a nagging ninny, but still waiting for those pictures......


Im especially curious just how "similar" the 105 front end is to the 80 series front end

not that Im going to win the lottery and go out and get a new 100 series and do a 80 front axle transplant under it any time soon..... but I can dream, cant I?

PS - also curious how the rest of your truck might be similar to our 80's

what's the transfer case in your 105?..... and you have an inline 6 right? the gas or diesel?

while you are taking & posting pics get a couple of the engine compartment


please and thank you
 
well duh!

search for Phil's other posts I tell myself

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=84581

several pics of Phils truck and other 105's

I am very envious of our friends in Australia,

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