Does anyone have experience with a Torsen diff?
Here is my situation:
I heard my rear brakes scraping metal, so I tore them down and found the
shoes were fine, but the edge of the shoe was rubbing on the inside
surface of the drum. There was a lot of end play on the axle.
Since the passenger side had an axle that was damaged and cut of to the
cotter pin hole, I decided to pull my spare axle apart, put in a new
axle and reshim the end play.
When I pulled the axle out, the axle shaft spacer ( item 12 in the
service manual)) came out of the diff with the axle and I had to fish it
out of the housing. The spacer is the piece that sits in the middle of
the diff and the axles make contact with it to set up the end play from
both sides. In the stock unit it is captive, with the pinion mate shaft
going through a slot in the center of the spacer (but it can float a
bit, but it can't come out with an axlebecause the pinion mate shaft
passes through it) .
When my Torsen was installed, the original spacer was used and it just
floats with the end of each axle riding against it. More or less like
stock, but the spacer is not captive since the Torsen does not use
spider gears. What was strange is the spacer had a lot of wear near the
end on the OD, but it was worn on an eccentric. The wear is significant.
About .250" of the OD of the spacer, measured from either end, is worn
down about .045". Most of that wear is over about 120 degrees of the
OD. I hope this make some sense. The spacer is 1.502 inches long and
the best I can get is about 1.122 for an OD so it may be 1.5" x 1.125"
as the original spec. Can anyone confirm this for me? I need to make
up a new one as the ends that ride on the axle has galled a bit and if I
grind them down, I will have problems taking up end play as I only had
three shims to take out in total. Any sugestions? Anyone have any ideas
why the strange wear pattern?
Bob Melusky
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