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Allright...I welded a spare diff I had lying around a couple months agao, really just for the fun of it...I decided if I had a spare hour or so, I'd swap it into my daily driver (N/A) S13 and see how it acted...
So I did that this weekend...and it's rough.
When I first pulled out of the driveway, I noticed it was hard to steer...when both rear wheels are pulling the same direction, the front's have to fight to make it turn.
Once I cut it full right to back into the street, there was nasty clunking and the rear inside wheel was hopping as it skidded along, trying to stay the same speed as the outside tire. Nasty noises, lot's of vibration, and the shifter was almost hitting the sides of the hole in the underbody due to all the movement.
It drove OK, but every slow corner it hopped and skipped, with a pronounced THUD-clunk-THUD.
Now, if you gave it throttle entering the corner to get it to break loose and just slide a little, there was so much rear grip that it just pushed the front out...understeer like crazy.
If you clutch kicked it, or hammered it from a stand still, it would slide out nice and smoothly, it that part was great...but really no different than with my VLSD in the S14.
I put about 30 miles on it, including a couple runs trough a new neighborhood (new curvy roads, but with no houses), and while it was OK for quick "grip" driving and a little sliding around, it SUCKED on the street. And I'm not saying that b/c I'm a little b!tch...I can put up with just about anything for decent performance, but this was just rediculous.
That being said, if you only tracked your car, or drifted A LOT, this may be acceptable.
And with shitty rear tires, it may be better...b/c it would just squeal and slide, rather than hop madly...but with somewhat-sticky FM901s, it was bad.
So my opinion is:
Welded diff = Decent, but not worth it...unless you run hard rear tires for drift. With any grip in the rear, it's just too violent on the chassis.
Case in point: My drivers door lock didn't work the next day after putting miles on the car...the rod had fallen out of the lock assembly from all the hopping and shaking.
And as I said, my VLSD equipped S14 performs in a similar manner...slides just as well, breaks both tires every time, etc...but without bad streetability.
Just wanted to post a review...you may agree or not, but I figured some people may want a review.
- Brian
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