Fordcosworth

What do you recommend, I need to change the original LSD on my Sierra Cosworth Sapphire 2wd, 7,5" lsd.

Jim Green

Go Quaife..... Had mine in now for a couple of years, and now with 428bhp, it all makes sence.

To be honest, they're both damned good diffs, and alot more reliable than the original. Of course, the quaife diff uses the original cosworth crown wheel and pinion, which is no problem as it is the planet gears that are the weak point in the standard diff.

Quaife Diff in Ford Casing.

Dan@Rapid-Ford

iTrader: (5)

I've got a gripper diff and when i had it in my saff i found that the car doesn't squat as much as it used to and it takes off without swaying left side out.

its very difficult to explain how the car feels but it takes some getting used to.

Cheers
Daniel

Fordcosworth

Ok! Will probably go for quaife unit then, does it require any modifications or is it "bolt on"? Where are the cheapest place buying it?

Ginge !

there about 1400quid with the modds to fit in the ford housing

matt bell has a gripper aswell i belive in his 3 door, try pming him and seeing what he finds

marco polo

iTrader: (1)

heres my 2 pence worth this is what i think

I have a gripper plated lsd it has been in the car 5yrs and it's full time 2wd all the time

the Quaife isn't full time 2wd it works by alternate but very fast and if you was on track and you had a wheel in the air it sends all drive to the wheel in the air and not to the one thats on the ground..

i have the right to comment because i have used both and i prefer the Gripper over the Quaife

the gripper lsd if you have it set for track use then it is very noisy and worse as the oil gets hot

if you have the gripper set for rd use..... it's noisy at first untill you do about 200/300miles untill the plates bed in then it's like a normal diff no noise or nothing and you wouldn't know that you had a modded diff in your car


most peeps go for the Quaife for rd use

most of all the old skool will go for a platted diff because of it's full time/all the time 2wd

Both units are bullit proff it's the crownwheel and pinion that will break first not the actual units

most peeps think with these kinds of diffs that you just put it in and forget about it

this isn't the case they both need looking at some point in it's life

normaly with the plated diff will need plates/bearing at some point and the Quaife will need the worm gears/ bearings looked at

I have just had mine gripper check over after 5yrs of abuse the top and bottom bevelle plates had broken .. the diff has just had a fresh build new bearing plates and set for rd use it's being built from Tom @ Gripper they guy who makes the Diffs


Marco

Fiecos Dan

as Marco sed.


Road car / 1/4 mile car either quaife or gripper rd spec,

track car gripper.


best place for a built up set up is either direct to Gripper or Bernie/ dome for the quaife.

your'll lookin about £1200 by memory for the quaife built, and about £1000 for the gripper built. plus you got to supply a donar diff.

olek

does the gripper-unit or the diff-housing need any mods to fit? i've heard that the flanges need some mods, any comments on this?

Tony Ryan

Marco , , fantastic and concise information as usual .
Ive had both Viscous diffs and quaife diffs in 2wd Sierras now , the viscous i found very predictable up to about 350bhp , then i bought a Quaife unit from TF to cope with a bit more power , it was a bit noisy into corners when it was working and i found it tried to drive you straight off at right hand corners which i didn't like much .
Ive now bought an X-trac plated 9" Diff so i'll let you know how that compares when it gets a run .

Matt

r+d plated unit in my car, its yet to be driven in anger with the new diff and quaife box so i cant comment on performance but i trust every word that bernie ( www.gearboxman.co.uk ) tells me same said for marco both these chgaps have forgotten way more than i will ever know about cossie transmission

mine was £1500 inc vat and fluids before you ask

im using a fully synthetic 80w/140 diff oil

std 7.5" casing so not really much to look at.....



also should you go this route one thing to bear in mind is that the diff flange threads are a different size to std

std is m10X1.25
r+d is M10X1.5

Matt

also you should you go r+d you should shot peen and polish your crown wheel and pinion as this diff uses these standard bits

4x4pete

Iv got a griper in the back and quaife box and front diff how much? to much

olek

but does anything need any mods to fit the Gripper-diff? anyone?

4x4pete

not that i know off only your ears when turning a tight turn

Matt

not that you would do yourself, the case needs machining internally

other than that its a direct replacement when you have the correct drive shaft to diff flange bolts

wimwerf

so a quaife diff is not that good.....or is it only good for the front diff...and for the rears the gripper is the one to have...

markk

iTrader: (2)

god marco how manytimes have we dont this discussion over the year now pal

i have used, std viscous, uprated viscous, ATB, and plated all in competition, on tarmac and the problems found were as follows

std viscous - might as well have a std diff unit, not worth bothering with as any decent amount of power will over come the viscous unit when the fluid warms .

uprated viscous (450nm) great to launch with put the power down really well, until the unit warms up - which was really fast being so tight, the unit will lock so you turn for a fast corner and as the diff is locked you go straight on - bad manouver

the ATB (or quaife etc) ok as long as both wheels are on the ground, with equal grip - as soon as one lifts or hits some loose (ie full corner speed) then the drive is given to the least ressistance - i.e the wheel with the least load

the plated (gripper/r+d/salisbury/x-trac) these are the shit for power and control, will never lose drive, can be a bit noisey at times but the differance in power handling/control of the car is far superior

but hey .................................................. .what do i know

Matt

i just KNEW you would read this mark

mark can you explain shit for power and control a bit more please?

markk

iTrader: (2)

"the shit" = the dogs bollox, the bees knees, the business comprendez vous ?

Tony Ryan

He means the Tits, the nuts , the dogs danglies etc...

markk

iTrader: (2)

marco polo

iTrader: (1)

Mark

i think about 8 times a yr i'm not posting any more on the subject

just let them try what ever they like


I have just had my gripper rebuilt after 6 yrs (ok 1yr off the rd)

when the Gripper was striped down what they found was just a broken top and bottom bevele plate nothing else the plates were still fine

anyway i spoke to Tom @ Gripper and said Tom ,"have you got a top and bottom belvel plates for my diff". he said "yes but they are alot thicker now due to these breaking premiture" I said " how much thicker are they " he Said well the other ones use to be 2 mm but these new ones are 4mm " I said "ok i'll have 2 and you know with these thicker belvel plates do i still keep the same amount of torque on the plates " he said yes , I said "are you sure because if these are thicker plates then obviously i'm going to increase the( preload) torque due to the fact that these bevel plates are thicker it's going to squash them tighter because theres an extra 4mm on the actual unit ...He said "it will be ok"

anyway I then sent these plates to T.R transsmisions in Dudley to rebuild the diff which he did fair plate to him

I said to Tony the guy who built the diff back up make sure thats it's set for ROAD use not track he said "ok i will he said how much torque on the plates for Rd" I said "what Tom @ gripper told me 80 "

I got the diff back and put it back in my car ok i was expecting it to be noisy for the first 300 mile and then normaly the noise goes away because of it been set for road

after i did a track day and about 300 rd miles the noise was getting louder and really screaching going around the corners at slowish speed and worse as the oil got hot (thats because the plates are too tight and they are trying to break free this would be ok for track or comp use )

I got fed up of the noise and took the diff back and sent it to Tom @ gripper to do it ... I said Tom this diff is well noisey and nothing like it was before He said leave it with me i'll sort it out ... I then said to Tom "not being funny and i know it's your make of Diff but 80 is far too much on the rd " Tom replys "leave it with me i will sort it out and change all the ramp angles put different plates to make it more rd freindly ..I said then to Tom please i you could i'm getting sick of taking this diff out

anyway i got it back of Tom @gripper fully rebuilt with new plates to suit as i was turning the diff it felt good and pretty easy to turn at the propshaft end fitted the diff back in and i have done 600 mile now and it's still the fooking same as it was before screaming like a bitch when turning

I'm going to see Tom and take him out in the car and see what he thinks

I know when we use to use the Z.F plated diff before we use to set them about 55/60 for rd use for the simple fact thats when set at 60 theres not that much preload on the plates (called progressive load) on the plates therefore when corning one wheel will spin slightly faster than the other and will stop the binding on the plates if my car was a full on track car the noise wouldn't bother me at all and i wopuld have it set for full on track use to get the most out of it

Tom did say to me if you have any probs just ring me

if he would have listened to me in the first place all he would have to do is set it to about 55/60 preload on the plates job done

now i got to take it out again and send it back never had this problem before


and after all this would i change this diff for a unplated one ,never in a million yrs it works well when right

marco

wimwerf

how much could a gripper diff take....bhp/torque....

is a gripper diff also good for the front side...

RichardPON

I think it's worth pointing out where this diff is to be used.

The most vocal on the subject, being Tony, Mark, and Marco primarily use their cars for competition (Marco road/track).

I have used a quaife on a full time road car, and found it thoroughly enjoyable, bearing in mind I don't tend to lift a wheel whilst circumnavigating the A41 roundabout

marco polo

iTrader: (1)

winwerf

you will never break the actual unit because it's made from E.N 42 hardensteel the only thing "you will break is the crown wheel or the pinion "

you will never break an ATB unit either same again the the crown wheel or the pinion will be the weak point even if you have them shot peened they still break

marco

Matt

sweet

now give me half an hour to read marco's reply

timrud

OK... slightly different aplication here...

FWD cars...

I looked on Gearboxman's site... saw three options.

1. Quaife (but I don't like the idea of the wheel off the ground having more drive sent to it )

2. Gripper

3. Tran-x.

Now the tran-x one looks adjustable in some ways? Am I right on that?

How often will a Tran-x diff need rebuilding over say the Gripper diff?

Cheers guys!

markk

iTrader: (2)

the tran-x is just teh same asa gripper , the principles are identicle, simple plated diff with varying ramp angles - all done on the bevel plates and with thrust washers to preload

timrud

Is it as durable then?

markk

iTrader: (2)

tranx used to have a bad name as the weaker stuff to quaife, but seeing how shit most of quaifes stuff is who knows

Rallyesport

What must be done to the flanges to fit a Gripper on 7.5" cosworth?

markk

iTrader: (2)

small groove machined for retaining circlips