Subaru (R160 diff) Rear Locker project

I have a viscous lsd in the rear, hopefully get the dccd in soon and a front lsd. Rear locker would be the bomb though.
 
As said yesterday on "what have you done to your car today", it should be another month waiting the rear locker. :madred:
 
One thing you should keep in mind is that locker diffs are generally noisy and, for street use, rather crude. I was speaking to Dave about this and he was surprised people were considering them, when plated diffs give similar results and are more suitable for street use. However, it is an interesting engineering exercise and it will be interesting to see how it all goes. My front diff conversion was not that different. Never been done before but fascinating should it actually all come together, which it did. All the best with it.
 
I don't understand why a differential locker would be noisy for street use, I wouldn't lock it on tarmac, only when needed.
In the STI box TY752vb6ea I bought from england (JDM), there is a factory helical differential that just easily fits a Forester box...well, I won't need it as i already have a Quaife since 7 years, but nothing very new about adapting a helical front differential...?
 
Sorry, I had not read this thread for a while and I had to go back to see you are looking at one you can manually lock. My comments relate to a conventional locker diff and how they are noisy and crude for the street. Yours should not have that problem.

As I understand it, the box you refer to with the helical front diff is from a 5 speed box? The helical diff in my car is from a 6 speed gearbox- very different gearboxes.
 
Yes, it's a 5 speed box.

So you adapted a 6 speed helical in your 5 speed DR box, right ?
 
My rear locker project is dead...the mechanic I met in august last year that told me he could sure adapt a Suzuki Samurai differential with locker in the r160 housing hasn't done anything yet, so I sadly abandoned this project.

I now have a Quaife waiting to be installed in the rear by a week or two...
 
This is very sad indeed. :shake: I was so looking forwards to hearing the results of this project... It took your mechanic a year not to do anything????.....

Hopefully in a year or two I will have sufficient funds to get some equipment to engineer and build my own from scratch :ebiggrin:
 
It doest suprise me that you mechanic couldn't get it to fit. the suzuki diffs are very different from the r160 subarus. i wouldn't love a diff locker but i think i would go for a good LSD over a manual locker just because i hate driver cars with open diffs in the rear
 
hydrowill said:
Dedman home much do you anticipate it would cost?
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No idea. I haven't looked into it closely enough yet as I currently dont have the money or time but a prototype would be pretty costly I would imagine as making all the gears/engaging mechanism/axle splines hard enough would be a real challenge and possibly quite expensive.

Needless to say, when I give it a go I will keep you all posted.

Out of interest what would people be prepared to pay for one.

thunder039 said:
I think i would go for a good LSD over a manual locker just because i hate driver cars with open diffs in the rear
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Definitely don't agree on that one. A locker would make a Subie near unstoppable offroad which is all im interested in :ebiggrin: :ebiggrin: :ebiggrin: But different strokes for different folks i guess.... :o
 
if was a dedicated off roader then yes of course a manual locker is better, but most especially subarus are not dedicated offroaders and i would prefer a nice tight LSD in this case.
i'm actually looking at combining these two preferences with an auto locker (detroit locker) works like a constantly locked diff so great off road but allows you to turn corners on road, and a hell of a lot more fun then a open rear on road :raspberry:
 
I can understand why Dedman would want to engineer a locker and think that is great. But I don't understand why other people don't appreciate what a good LSD can do to these cars. I don't know of any car on this forum that would out perform my car in this area with it's diffs. All you need are the readily available parts and a mechanic who knows how to do it right. Using readily available parts is for those without the gifts and skills Dedman has should, I would have thought, be very important.
 
DedmanWalking said:
Out of interest what would people be prepared to pay for one.
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I rekon a similar price to what one of the KAAZ rear LSDs would be reasonable. I have two 4.11 diffs kicking around too.

thunder039 said:
if was a dedicated off roader then yes of course a manual locker is better, but most especially subarus are not dedicated offroaders and i would prefer a nice tight LSD in this case.
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Sorry Thunder not sure I agree, open diffs will always handle better on road than than a tight LSD for a daily driver. Better on tire wear too. The ability to then lock the diff offroad will be better than any LSD. Subies would be a weapon with a locker.
 
Rally said:
without the gifts and skills Dedman has
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Haha maybe that should be skills Dedman thinks he has or would like to have....:rotfl:

hydrowill said:
Sorry Thunder not sure I agree, open diffs will always handle better on road than than a tight LSD for a daily driver. Better on tire wear too. The ability to then lock the diff offroad will be better than any LSD. Subies would be a weapon with a locker.
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I am going to have to agree with this as well. A car as my daily driver isn't going to be driving gunning it around every corner I can find. Im not wealthy enough for the day I screw it up and total someones car or someone. For this reason I also believe that open diffs are the best for on road and having a manual locker means you have an open diff on road (perfect for a daily driver) and the ultimate off road diff as well.

Also are detriot lockers actually good on-road? My understanding of them is (and it could be completely wrong) that during a corner the outside wheel freewheels (has no drive) and all the power is transferred to the slower (inside) wheel unless it slips enough to be rotating at equal speed to the outside wheel when the diff will then act as 'locked' again. Doesn't this result in the inside wheel providing less lateral grip (when pushing it through a corner) which is not ideal and also possible losses in grip on the outside wheel during sudden power transfer as the diff locks. I imagine they would be rather good for drifting but again not really for a daily driver.

Please correct me if im wrong in my understanding of Detroit lockers as i dont know much about them and would love to have a better understanding :o
 
I really must disagree. Both my Forrie and WRX have plated rear and helical front diffs. The WRX also has DCCD/plated centre diff. The Forester simply does not have the power to do anything anyway- and I use it as a daily driver. Off road it has been unstoppable thus far.

The WRX is utterly controllable. It does everything you want it to do. I can do a perfect 180 degree "handbrake" turn without using the handbrake, just by steering on the throttle and a bit of steering- less than 90 degrees from the straight ahead in either direction and closer to 60. (Which I can assure you is a most incredible feeling) You just point it and the diffs do not work against you. You simply hold the slide for as long as you like. The only down point is with the front diff, if your car has a lot of power you will get torque steer.

With a powerful car it allows you to steer the car on the throttle if you want to have fun. With a less powerful car, or if not driving for fun, the car behaves normally. The only downside as I said was a torque steer in the WRX, and with the KAAZ rear diff in the Forrie a rumble and slight vibration accelerating out of 90 degree corners. It won't be LSD's that cause accidents from my experience.
 
Can you have a locker in a LSD diff?

While I agree with Rally that front & rear LSDs, esp if combined with a DCCD as with Venom, make a Subie very capable offroad, I would think a locker would make it even better...

Plus I imagine a tightly wound up pLSD would need more maintenance. However, it may work the other way as tighter binding means less slip so less wear :shrug:
 
In 3 weeks, I'll go to a 4x4 festival in Valloire, France where there is also a free zone to test our 4x4's. Last year, I was already happy with my mods (the only SUV... and much better than a L200). This year with the few new mods I think I'll have real fun !
 
Not denying that front n rear lsds makes a capable car. Just a locker would be nicer for daily use.

I reckon it would work in my open style vlsd nachaluva.
 
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