shomesomesho
G-force addict
Or, “My DIY adventure installing a Quaife differential for the very first time”
I started the ’91 Plus this morning after completing my first Quaife install. Stretched her legs through the turns and twisties of empty Saturday morning roads. The unreal feel of being pulled when exiting turns, along with the conspicuous absence of inner tire peel at WOT was purely narcotic. And not having to worry anymore about flimsy diff pins shearing makes this a win-win situation.
It was a journey getting to this point. About a year ago I purchased a new Quaife differential from Shonut. Intimidated by the prospect of taking apart my tranny, I shopped around for someone to install it. Locally, shops were asking an arm-and-a-leg and I didn’t have a good sense of their work quality. And I wasn’t too excited about packing up my tranny and paying two-way shipping to have it done by someone good.
So, through sheer force of will, I decided to do it myself. I bought Josh’s video. I watched it. I got intimidated. I didn’t have all the special tools. I thought there’s no way in **** I’m gonna be able to do this. So here sat the royal Quaife differential, bullet proof with no bullets to face, under my desk for the past year. On occasion I would pick it up and ****** it, and brood over the possibilities.
With time I slowly accumulated the necessarily tools although for other reasons. I acquired a drill press so I could redrill 13” Cobra rotors to the Taurus bolt pattern (you should have seen how much the local machine shop wanted to charge me for this- more than the cost of the drill press!). Next came a 20 ton shop press for removing/installing wheel bearings and suspension bushings. I found a differential shim measurement tool on the cheap while making ebay rounds. And finally, the last piece of the puzzle, a Rotunda diff bearing install tool, obsolete and no longer made, magically appeared on ebay. I hit the buy-it-now button. (I later found out this tool wasn’t really necessary.)
And so I watched Josh’s indispensable video again, and again, and again.. and again. I needed to fabricate a couple more simple tools, namely a diff bearing cup installer and a jig to hold the old diff on the drill press. These are well-described in the video, but did require some welding.
By now I must have watched the video a thousand times. But I was ready.
Split open the case. Pull out the old diff. Drill out the ten ring gear rivets. Press off the ring gear. Pull off the diff bearing and liberate the speedo gear. Ring gear/speedo gear to Quaife. Press on bearings. Remove old bearing cups from case halves. Press in clutch side cup. Determine diff shim size. Press in tranny side cup with diff shim. New seals everywhere. Throw in a set of fresh blocking rings. Put it all back together.
Done. Not bad for a beginner.
What seemed intimidating at first turned out not so bad in actuality. I guess fear tends to wane over a year’s time. Seriously, the work itself can be accomplished within a day. You just need to have the right tools, and of course, the video. Thank you, Josh!
Will I ever do another Quaife install again? Now that I have the right tools, probably. With another SHO in the garage (wife’s ’92 MTX) I have every reason to. The way she drives that thing, I don’t expect the diff pin, or the clutch for that matter, to last very long.
I started the ’91 Plus this morning after completing my first Quaife install. Stretched her legs through the turns and twisties of empty Saturday morning roads. The unreal feel of being pulled when exiting turns, along with the conspicuous absence of inner tire peel at WOT was purely narcotic. And not having to worry anymore about flimsy diff pins shearing makes this a win-win situation.
It was a journey getting to this point. About a year ago I purchased a new Quaife differential from Shonut. Intimidated by the prospect of taking apart my tranny, I shopped around for someone to install it. Locally, shops were asking an arm-and-a-leg and I didn’t have a good sense of their work quality. And I wasn’t too excited about packing up my tranny and paying two-way shipping to have it done by someone good.
So, through sheer force of will, I decided to do it myself. I bought Josh’s video. I watched it. I got intimidated. I didn’t have all the special tools. I thought there’s no way in **** I’m gonna be able to do this. So here sat the royal Quaife differential, bullet proof with no bullets to face, under my desk for the past year. On occasion I would pick it up and ****** it, and brood over the possibilities.
With time I slowly accumulated the necessarily tools although for other reasons. I acquired a drill press so I could redrill 13” Cobra rotors to the Taurus bolt pattern (you should have seen how much the local machine shop wanted to charge me for this- more than the cost of the drill press!). Next came a 20 ton shop press for removing/installing wheel bearings and suspension bushings. I found a differential shim measurement tool on the cheap while making ebay rounds. And finally, the last piece of the puzzle, a Rotunda diff bearing install tool, obsolete and no longer made, magically appeared on ebay. I hit the buy-it-now button. (I later found out this tool wasn’t really necessary.)
And so I watched Josh’s indispensable video again, and again, and again.. and again. I needed to fabricate a couple more simple tools, namely a diff bearing cup installer and a jig to hold the old diff on the drill press. These are well-described in the video, but did require some welding.
By now I must have watched the video a thousand times. But I was ready.
Split open the case. Pull out the old diff. Drill out the ten ring gear rivets. Press off the ring gear. Pull off the diff bearing and liberate the speedo gear. Ring gear/speedo gear to Quaife. Press on bearings. Remove old bearing cups from case halves. Press in clutch side cup. Determine diff shim size. Press in tranny side cup with diff shim. New seals everywhere. Throw in a set of fresh blocking rings. Put it all back together.
Done. Not bad for a beginner.
What seemed intimidating at first turned out not so bad in actuality. I guess fear tends to wane over a year’s time. Seriously, the work itself can be accomplished within a day. You just need to have the right tools, and of course, the video. Thank you, Josh!
Will I ever do another Quaife install again? Now that I have the right tools, probably. With another SHO in the garage (wife’s ’92 MTX) I have every reason to. The way she drives that thing, I don’t expect the diff pin, or the clutch for that matter, to last very long.
