I got a friend who can lock a rear end. He does it all the time to ford rear end for drag cars and dirt tracking. I am getting tired of hunting down a gsl. So i am thinking about just locking the damn thing up. Why do you all think?

jr

 

It'll make it harder to turn.

 

yeah, man, it's gonna be suicide on the street, in the wet

 

First of all let me say that lockers are great fun.

The down side is you'll go through tires really quick due to the inside wheel spinning around corners. They also tend to make the car understeer initially and at lower speeds which usually requires some callous throttle work to break the rear end loose. There is also the risk of braking axles because of the load placed on the inside axle before the tire actually loses traction.

I had a locker in mine but I got sick of it after a while and put the open wheeler back in. It was great for launching and doing burnouts though...

Welding it is easy... you simply weld all the spider gears together as well as to the carrier. I also welded a couple of large bolts in there to hold it all together.

 

i don't suggest it if you do anything besides drag race.

 

not a good idea on the street IMHO.. not even a good idea on the road track.. only cars in the Improved Touring division at the local track that do it that I know of, is the mustangs, because they totally rely on their power getting them out of the turns, not their handling. RX-7's don't have that problem, I wouldn't do it.

 

lol, must be just us aussies, i know lots of ppl who lock up their diffs, lots of fun

 

solution to breaking axles - use really cheap, hard, crappy tires.

 

If you lock the rearend the common way, welding the spiders, for the street, and care about the condition of the axles, I hope you've gots lots of patience with making multiple-point turns.. we've got a 280Z ITS car in the yard right now and the easiest way to get it turned around is to sidestep the clutch on wet grass....

--Danny

 

I hope you don't plan on driving in the rain or snow.

 

I drove with my locker in the wet many a time. Nearly got caught by suprise the first time I was going through a round-about when the *** end stepped out but once you get used to it it's very predictable.

Any yes the easiest way to do a u-turn is to rev it and dump the clutch. Parking can be a bitch though.

 

Get a Quaife

 

yeah an sell your house to pay for it

 

I should mention that the diff in the GSL does not slip at all... it makes the inside rear tire chirp all the time. Might as well BE a welded diff

As for turning ability... I used to drive my Suby in 4wd mode all the time. This forces the front wheels to go the same speed as the rear ones due to there being no center differential. because of that, the inside rear tire would actually have to turn FASTER than the outside rear due to the mathematics of it all. I found that if you just drove the car hard enough that the tires were working hard ANYWAY that it didn't matter.

For what it's worth, tires are never rolling at the same speed as the ground. There is up to 10% slip. Likewise, laterally, tires "work" only when there is a slip angle between where the tire is pointed and the actual arc that it describes. In a nutshell what this means is that given enough load, it really doesn't matter if you have a welded diff since the tires are slipping and sliding anyway EVEN WHEN IT FEELS LIKE THEY AREN'T.

 

my friend got one for $1000 bucks, wich he said was the best deal he has seen since their usually 1300+.
If I had a 3 rotor i think i would go for the Quaife...imagine...no wheelspin.

 

This turned out to way more interesting than I ever thought. Thanks and keep comming with the input.

JR

 

Cars with locked rear diffs are fun to drive, especially if they have prodigious amounts of low end torque

 

For $795 get a full brand new billet steal 'Torsen' type diff, locked diffs are illegal for street use in OZ, and the 'performance' is rubbish. Any one who does that must be joking if they think it is a great performance mod! It is dangerous!

Torque Biasing Diff

 

Plenty of people put welded diffs or spools in trucks up here, drive around with 35" Boggers, no problems other than making lots of noise when they make sharp turns

 

"Steal" is right....right outta my pocket!! I bought my entire current '84 rex for $45 less...