We also sent the differential pinion bearings and races, as well as the carrier (side) bearings and races to be WPC treated.
WPC Treating these tapered bearings also reduces friction, heat, galling, pitting, and drivetrain losses. Any type of roller or ball bearing can be greatly improved through the WPC Treatment process.
Now that our gears and bearings are WPC treated, we took our parts to J&S Gear in Huntington Beach to get assembled.
After assembly, the differential looked great with the SuperPro polyurethane bushings.
Compared to the original cast iron FD RX-7 diff, the new aluminum Ford Explorer 8.8” diff is significantly beefier looking. With rubber mounted front bushings, the 8.8” diff will also be far more secure than the stock differential’s Power Plant Frame (PPF) or the aftermarket Sikky front mount that uses a single bushing.
11 comments
Looks like a win-win upgrade (adding a clutch-type LSD, reducing the assembly’s weight, and improving durability). Really enjoying this project – thanks for sharing all the progress!
It isn’t a clutch LSD. He literally describes it as a gear LSD.
Facepalm. Not good reading comprehension on my part. Thanks for clarifying.
It’s always great to hear Mario’s named mentioned from TSR. He’s an artist with a welder. I love all the work he has done for the Datsun community.
This thing will be a monster! I appreciate all the updates.
Awesome to see the attention to detail on the ring and pinion gears! All that work will increase the fatigue life by magnitudes.
Love it. I’m still waiting to see a brake rotor WPC treated to see how much longer the brake distances would be.
Whats the difference in length, axle centre to driveshaft flange between the two diffs? Currently have an aftermarket clutch type diff in the OEM housing that I don’t really trust behind a T56 Magnum. It’d be a shame to bin/remake the carbon driveshaft shaft…….they look pretty close!
The Ford Explorer 8.8″ diff flange (using the Ronin mount) is 0.425″ rearward/closer to the axle centerline than stock. It sounds like your best bet is to get a 0.425″ spacer to adapt your driveshaft to the Ford 8.8 diff flange.
Perfect – thanks Billy. That’s better than trying to go the other way! Looking forward to your next instalment.
While the out side of the assembly might be larger, it’s no guarantee of greater strength. A measurement of the gears and the bearings would be needed to make that claim. The fact the Ford unit is lighter is also a factor. Also the original mounting with the PPF is quite strong, as the lever arm of the PPF is much longer than the bushings located right at the companion flange.