Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Transaxle Lowest prices on the Torsen LSD?

From what I understand, the Torsen multiplies torque to the slipping wheel x 4 vs the Quaife x 2. However, if one wheel is off the ground, 4 x 0 =0. Both wheels will not spin so if you are stuck in the mud, you have to apply the brakes to mulitiply the torque to the slipping wheel. The quaife does not suffer from this problem.

Also, the quaife has a great limited lifetime warrenty and the case is billet vs the Torsen's cast case. BUT, the Torsen doesn't need a billet case because the gears do not put undue stress on the case like a Quaife.

So price is the tie breaker here. Somebody post US dollar prices please.

Someone was advertising $550 shipped for a quaife. Florida guy I think. I can't remember who it was, but I am going to highly consider it.

I like the idea of having torque applied to the non-slipping wheel even if the other wheel is off the ground...like a deep pothole.

warmonger

FletchaAutoSports or something, he told me $545 + shipping or something, PM him (I might have his screen name wrong). THe only reason I didn't go with him was because I got the quaife off of ebay from a CEG'er.

Suneil

Glad your back. Can Torsen sell direct, like a special CEG price?

Teach me Brotha!! Thanks for the good info.

So tell me, on your educated opinion which diff would be the strongest if both are roughly the same price?

Also, what would be the benefit of having a 3:1 bias over a 2:1 or vice-versa? Maybe you can explain it in terms of what I feel driving the car.

My main goals that I want to achieve with the least $ possible is minimizing single wheel spin during take-off and when powering out of turns.

A stronger differential in general is also a goal but either should provide that. I also have much better tires now so the wheel hop is greatly reduced and overall wheelspin is down.

...er was down until the piston cracked.

If all else is equal, then do I want 2:1 or 3:1?

warmonger

I think you will be satisfied with either diferential you choose. I personally have had the Quaife for about 40,000 miles and have had zero problem with it. I don't think the difference in bias will be that noticable to you. I can just tell you that my Quaife never spins just one tire. I will also tell you that the only way you are going to go to the track and not spin your tires is to use a true slick and even then you will have to do other suspension work. I used drag radials with my Quaife at the track and still had tire spin with N/A 2.5 litre car. The installation will be the same for either differential, both are quality units, and either will be a big improvement in reliabilty over stock.

In all honesty, I've not done any test work on a Quaife unit myself. But I'd agree that you'd probably be satisfied with either in a street car. In normal driving, its true that you probably feel a difference in the bias level either. But that's not to say you'd never see/feel it.

The reason that this unit was designed in the first place is that FRPP was building the FR200 cars, and on their test mules, the Quaife they were using didn't provide enough tractive effort. When launching the car on the drag strip, the high torque level they were generating would overwhelm the bias level of the diff, and one wheel would spin. The diff would then transfer torque to the other side, and that one would spin instead. Back and forth. The whole time the car was trying to twitch back and forth, left to right. Keep in mind that this was in a Focus, turboed at 18 psi making 285 lb-ft, and using an SLA front suspension conversion, so how you apply that is up to you.

With the Torsen in place, the car launch straight without one-wheel spin. It just went down the track. That's part of what the difference is. Also, in tight corners, you'd pick up the difference in bias level once you've started approaching traction limits. I'd guess that you could transfer 10-15% more weight off of the inside tyre before the diff would allow spin to occur. So it is advantageous in an autoX.

Regarding strength, I don't know. To be honest, the Quaife is likely to be somewhat stronger, as I suspect it has more planet gear sets to distribute the load over. That said, I was unable to varify the ultimate strength of our unit because I broke axle shafts on our test machine before damaging the diff. The axle shaft broke at about 16% more torque then the open diff broke at. So either unit is strong enough to shift the weak link elsewhere.

Did I miss anything?