Okay, I bought a nice low mileage rear end and the shipper wrapped it in plastic wrap.

Here's the damage-






I am pissed but this thread is more about moving forward.

Could this be fixed with a welder, I can't weld aluminum myself so I would be paying to have it done, but is it possible to just weld it back together. The break is clean, no missing metal.

Or the other option is to swap some pieces from my other LSD. What would be the easiest way to fix it with a spare LSD, should I swap all of the internals into the old housing or can I just replace the broken rear section and leave the internals together??

Thanks for any advice or input.

 

Damn...never seen anything like this.

 

JB Weld FTW!!

Just find another housing. The stub axles pop out and the housing unbolts from the carrier. Use silicone gasket maker and fill oil. It takes less then 20 minutes.

 

Im sure it could be welded. You would want to make sure it got welded all the way through and then smooth it up. Dont really know about strength but it should almost make it stronger. Also who shipped it as i have one in the mail right now? I really hope mine doesnt show up like that. That really sucks. Thats why i hate shipping ****. Just got my tokicos yesterday and the damn boxes were all beat to hell. Its amazing how they handle some stuff.

 

Yani. yeah I just read here:http://www.teamfc3s.org/main/factory...REAR_AXLES.pdf
and realized that it does indeed come apart like I was hoping. I already have another casing with new Mazdatrix competition bushings already pressed in, I guess I'll just switch the casings when I swap the diff this weekend.

I might very well buy the aluminum kit for my wire feed and try to weld it myself, more as a learning project than anything else, I can weld steel okay now and have been wanting to try aluminum but I haven't had a reason until now. The diff I will be getting the donor casing from is supposedly rebuilt but it has been whining so I might try to fix this casing and use with the other whining diff if I ever get around to it.

EDIT- I have actually heard of this very thing happening on here before.

 

^ So who was the shipping company?

 

Well UPS was the carrier but it was packaged by a friend of another forum member.

 

Huh thats who shipped my struts but fedex has my diff. Its supposed to be here tomorrow so we will see. Crossing my fingers

 

get it welded up by a professional.

 

I'm just gonna switch the casing for right now, it'll be quick and my donor casing already has my new competition mounts pressed in.

But I would eventually like to try to fix it as my first real aluminum welding job, that is after some practice with the aluminum kit though/

 

oh man was that a shitty day, we must use the same shipping company, or buy from the same seller

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/rear-end-no-like-being-packed-peanuts-684669/

Matt

 

so what did you end up doing? Did you get some or all of your money back?

 

I talked the guy I bought it from into giving me half back, it was like 220 shipped and a hundred to ship it (think i got a pretty good deal anyway) although he spent about four dollars of that hundred in actual shipping.

Anyways got like sixty bucks back and at the moment its chilling in the garage while I contemplate trying to find just a "housing" for it or try to see if anybody can weld it strong enough to hold up. After talking to a few welders it seems with a good welder and maybe some gusseting it will be as strong if not stronger.

Hope that works out for you though, sucks people don't use common sense sometimes.

Matt

 

If you switch the housings make sure to set the gear lash properly.

 

8 cardboard boxes( cut and resized) and a roll of duct tape always did wonders for me, i shipped out 2 and shipped one from myself to myself 1000 miles, came back fine.
the one time let ups package a rotor iron, packing peanuts in the water jacket and oil inlet, ******* dumb asses i sware.

 

i just spoke to the seller, he didn't package it, it was packed by a mailing center who then gave it to UPS, we are working on a claim. It was obviously subjected to massive abuse and we're trying to get reimbursed.

 

Since when does changing the housing effect gear contact?

Please don't post BS. If you don't know what your talking about, go post in the lounge.

 

Yeah I'm not touching the guts, they will stay intact in the carrier. I'm only going to pull out the stub shafts and unbolt the casing. I'll put some sealant on and bolt my other casing on, reinstall stub shafts and install the new rear end in the car.

I do not think back lash is affected by simply switching the rear casing.

 

Hey - what year is that diff supposed to be? It really doesn't look like any of the early T2 diffs I have.

 

Here is a picture of an NA diff & a T2 diff. Yours does not look like it has all the ribs that this shows and all my T2 diffs have. I'm am not familiar with what anything beyond 87 looks like though since all I've had are 87s.

 

You would want to TIG weld that. You're not going to get a weld of satisfactory strength using a MIG on CAST aluminum.

For Welding aluminum with a MIG (without a spoolgun), use 100% argon shield, 0.035" wire with 0.045" tips (aluminum expands a lot when heated and will get jammed in a 0.035" tip, causing bird-nesting), replace the liner with a teflon coated 0.045 liner, set the tensioner as low as possible, ensure the aluminum is spotlessly clean (use something like alumibrite and an aluminum-dedicated stainless steel wire brush) and crank up the shielding flowrate. You will want to preheat to 350 degrees, and use the push gun technique to put in as much preheat as possible. I have had success with 24V@ 450-500 IPM.
You will also want to have some form of post-flow system attached if your welder does not allow it. Pulsed MIG is also a huge help, as is a spoolgun.

 

It's supposed to be an '86 TII LSD, it has the LSD tag.

I don't recall the GXL having a tag on it's diff but I can't be sure.

Now you got me worried about something else.

I'll measure the axle stub bolt pattern when I get home.



scathcart, thanks for the heads up on the welding. I will admit that I'm only proficient in flux cored wire fed welding on steel, I do not even have the gas rig for my Lincoln yet. Do they make flux cored aluminum wire or is the only way to do it with gas? I'm open to learning the full MIG way but I am not there yet.

 

there was never a T2 in '86. (unless it is a japan car)

 

ebdyguy, I think you may be right but I am confused.

From Kevin Landers website theres a pic where you can see the turbo and NA diff sitting side by side. You can clearly see the difference in the bolt pattern on topside of the carrier. The TII diff has four bolts while the NA has three.

The turbo diff is on the left -


Close up Turbo-


Close up NA-



Here is the differential that I was sold, same bolt pattern on the topside of the carrier and the rest of the diff even looks the same as the NA:



But the casing looks different than the NA casing.


So based on all the evidence here, I am drawing the comclusion that this is a NA diff.

It was sold as a "S4 Turbo II rear end - low miles (approx. 50k), LSD"

Here's the for sale thread in the Classified section.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=734680

It even says 86 on it.

again please. This is crazy.

 

The t arm, or where it goes 90degrees away from the pumpkin looks more like the turbo 2. If you look at how the bracing is where it joins the pumpkin. Just my observations. The n/a has 3 whereas the turbo 2 has one solid middle one.