Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches E. Great Lakes Airconditioned Transmission

For those who don't know, I blew my dif and my car is at Terry's. The dif blew up and blew a hole in the trans case. I'm getting a quaife installed which should prevent this from happening again. A word to the wise, when you get your clutch replaced, I would suggest doing the dif too. The worst feeling is to shift gears and have the engine rev without moving the car. Do what you like, but I would really consider a quaife, torsen, or even a new Ford dif when you do your clutch. You're paying for the labor anyway...why do it twice and risk being stranded b/c Ford designed a weak dif.

Good luck and happy racing!

ford did not "design a weak dif" they just didn't install a dif designed for 'raceing'. no prob, if you want to run the car hard, just install the proper parts. no one ever considers it "poor engine design by ford" when they make performance enhancements... i don't understand that thinking. the diff holds up fine if you treat it how it was meant to be treated.

anyway, sorry to hear about your car man.. that sucks.

Actually, if you look at the diff offered in the production version of the SVT and the diff offered in the new 2001(possibly new Cougars too) Mondeo you will notice that the size of the diff gears was increased drastically...maybe Ford realized there was a problem with the durability of the gears...

Not every diff that has been blown has been due to excessive wheel spinning and the like, there is a particular case that Terry H mentioned where the diff blew in a routine 1-2 shift.

Correct Ryan and if you rembember I showed you the pre 2000 dif and the 2000+ diff,the gear sizes,cut and material HAVE changed,it was a redesign....Trust me ,I tear several of these boxes down each week.......

Car is back, quafe is in, life is better.

bret >> the car is not designed for racing, but it's not designed to just pick up groceries. I don't race or abuse my car. I'm normally aspirated with some intake and exhaust mods. The dif is weak considering it is in an SVT. It's not a race car, but I doubt many people buy a $23k Contour to just pick up groceries. I drive aggressively like most people who own this car. Since many, if not most people on this site drive aggressively too, I think they should consider my story so they do not have an unfortunate incident like me. Also, my car does have 85k miles on it so as these cars get older, people may start to see more problems. I work at Ford and they are notorious for weak powertrains and the car was originally designed as a 4 cylinder. Also they are primarily concerned with the bottom line. Believe me, I have seen poor quality, lack of testing, and rushed designed all go into production to save money. Lastly, since the dif was upgraded from 98, it would seem like Ford did realize their mistake, and corrected it. I guess we all have our opinions so to each his own. Ciao

The question is... how do you like your new car !

Ray

I can vouch for the aggressive driving... I remember running against you over the summer on newburgh north of 9 mile