9 replies to this topic

[Sean12]

Hey guys,

i have been tryin to soucre an LSD at the moment for my fireblade BEC, and my first point of call has been the sierras and granada's. As far as i am aware all 4x4 sierras and grandas had an lsd and so did some of the early cosworths up until 1994, and also the granada scorpio. I think some of the diesels had them to ?!? but anyway lol what i was wondering was has anyone done a BEC before and used there own sourced LSD ? and if so do you have any pictures or help with what i should expect to do when i get it as far as taking it apart and gettting out what i need. when speaking to someone at the last mini show they said that you need to take out the lsd from within the case or somethin and that is the only part you need. i am basically tryin to create my own rear axle using granada and sierra parts, any help would be fantastic, cheers guys

[SukiDawg]

Why use Ford?

All Ford/sierra diffs are becoming harder and harder find now (when did you last see one on the road?), plus to find one with a suitable ratio for bike engine conversion it can be almost impossible without spending a load of wonga. Do you know what ratio you are after?

All the kit car people have moved over to the freelander diff now. It is plentiful, cheap, and lighter than the sierra. LSD's are available for them as an aftermarket part from the usual gearbox tuning people. Also the mounting brackets from the freelander lend themselves well to use in this kind of application....

You will need hybrid driveshafts of course if you are going to use Ford hubs, but thats not exactly a massive setback in building one offs anyway because of the change in length required.

I'm afraid I can't remember ratio for the freelander, but I do have a note of it, as its what I'm using for my project. If you'd like more details let me know......

Cheers,

David.

[Sean12]

cheers for the info sukidawg, im pretty sure the freelander diff is 3.182 : 1

have you any idea how much one of these is going to set me back ?

to be honest i am not sure what ratio i am looking for, just tryin to work it all out, any help would be great. I am using a fireblade 1998 900 RR.

i have been using a spreadsheet from westgarage to look at what sprocket sizes i should be using. below is a print preview of the spreadsheet as it stands. any advice would be brilliant.

Attached Files

•  Sprocket_Calculations.jpg   115.18K   20 downloads

[SukiDawg]

Whats your intended layout? I.e. Are you going to have the engine in the front or the rear, driving the front or the rear wheels? Are you going to drive the diff carrier directly with a chain or are you planning on driving the pinion of the diff.

A little more info on your plans would help.

[Sean 12]

it is goin to be RWD and the engine will be in the back, will be designing a frame for the rear. Wanted to use a diff set-up similar to that of the westgarage setup (http://www.westgarag.../kits/kit2.html). I have also been doing abit of reading and cant find anything about the freelander having a LSD as standard ?!? and they just used a Quaife ATB diff upgrade. If this is the case surely it will be more expensive to purchase one of these over a sierra/granada lsd. And to be honest im not too worried about the 7kg extra weight at the moment, i can work on reducing weight whens its done. as i say though, that is just what i have read an may be completely wrong, most of the reading was done on locostbuilders.

Edited by Sean 12, 15 October 2009 - 01:54 PM.

[R1mini]

Freelanders don't have lsd's as standard, sierra stuff is still fairly easily available at the moment, the ratio of either doesn't matter as your chain driving it.

The weight difference is marginal once you extract the diff from the casings, if you go for a atb freelander style diff you don't need to buy or strip a freelander diff as the atb will be the only bit used in the chain conversion.

I have used a purpose made chain driven atb diff from Quaife, using cheap and readily available Inner joints from the Fiesta/Escort fwd range. It does work out more expensive but not that much and there are several advantages, ie brand new, diff can go between 0 and full lock up, the ford viscous one at best is about 40lbs which means it still spins up on one wheel quite easily, fully sealed with 5 grease nipples, I see also that westgate garage do bearings and stuff for this diff as well

Cheers
David

[Sean12]

thank you david i really appreciate your quality advice, a good straight answer lol

i completely agree with you about the sierra vs freelander diff, i couldnt personally see the reason for goin for the freelander diff as i have seen quite a few seirra diffs available still. yes they may be lighter but not by a great deal once out of the casing like you say. i have seen a few sierra lsd on for sale so i think i will invest in one of those and take it from there.
yeah the westgarage set up looks quite good, and i think i will adopt a similar style or get intouch with them an get some parts from them (bearings, casing etc). Just out of interest david, what ratio Quaife ATB are you using. do you have any pictures of your set up mate ? are you runnning a z cars setup ?

Edited by Sean12, 15 October 2009 - 10:50 PM.

[Sean12]

just found a lsd, just purchased it from a scrappy near me in Brum ! its from a sierra xr4x4 (£150)

cant wait to start now ! also will be picking up my mini shell next weekend so can start on that.

my dad met up with some friends of his early who run there own grass track engineering company who make an race grass track cars. they have done lots of projects like this and have lots of plans to help me and lots of contacts and resources for cheap parts (couldnt believe my luck ). will start a new project thread next weekend when i pick up the mini.

next thing will be to cut out the back end of the shell and set the shell up of the floor at the correct ride height and level, and start from there, start building the frame.

the diff will be taken to friends in the next week or 2 to be strip down and sealed, some sprockets are going to made up to use and will sort out some drive shafts and hubs very soon.

watch this space.....

[R1mini]

Hello sean,
I tried to upload some pictures but it won't let me, no idea why.

Anyway it's a home made fwd R1 mini, the sprockets are 14 and 40 giving a ratio of 2.86 which is probably to highly geared but I will see, I just used these as I already had them.

Cheers
David

[Sean12]

hey david,

oh cool i see, no worries about the pics, if it works anytime soon post away would be cool to see how you have done it, have you got a project thread ?

yeah i was thinkin about using sprocket sizes of about 14 to 54, but i will calculate all that abit later when i come to gettin the sprockets made.

cheers again for your help !

a couple of pics of the new purchase (sierra lsd) pre strip down...

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•  16102009...jpg   51.02K   14 downloads
•  16102009.jpg   51.85K   8 downloads