Kaaz owners, have you ever noticed...?

[s14unimog]

Two things grabbed my attention this evening about my newly installed 2-way. After installing the diff I ran up to a parking lot to do the break in. Before I got started, I crawled under the car to feel the rear cover. A friend of mine had a guy set up/mess up some gears in his F150, and after the install he noticed that the housing got really hot. since that was fresh on my mind, I thought to check. I'd say I drove about 15miles and the temperature was warm to the touch. After the break in I crawled back under there and noticed it was fairly hot, and my vent line had leaked fluid into the frame...

Has anyone ever noticed if their clutch types generate a bunch of heat?

Another thing I noticed, with the car in the air, if you rotate the tires a tiny amount forward and backwards, there seems to be a slight amount of play between the axles and drive shaft. Have you ever noticed that as well?

The diff seems fairly quite, no gear winning or abnormal sounds, just the usually locking noise, so I'm fairly confident its okay just curious.

[headsup]

With the back and forth slight play i have noticed ,never had a problem with that tho.

[Sileighty_85]

Originally Posted by headsup

With the back and forth slight play i have noticed ,never had a problem with that tho.

Its called "Backlash" That normal but there are specs on how much is allowed It shows you how to do it in the FSM.

Most Diff swaps are not plug and play, you need to shim the diff to correct specs for reliable operation.

If the backlash is too great it will shear the teeth off
Not enough and it will generate heat due to the friction against the teeth and fail

[s14unimog]

Yeah I know what backlash is but that wouldn't be near the amount I'm talking about. I patterned the gears and everything looked okay. I wonder if this isn't just a characteristic of it being a clutch type. I have no experience with them.

[az_240]

You sure you have the right amount of fluid in there? Car should be level or flat on the ground when filling the diff.

Never heard of fluid coming out that vent tube.

When I installed my diff I just put the shims in the exact way they came out and I had no issues.

I've never checked to see how hot it got... I would check but my subframe is currently being worked on.

[s14unimog]

I filled the diff with it out of the car sitting on the table, I'm sure the level is right. One thing to note, I did get a little carried away "testing" my new found capabilities. I think I did maybe 10 15 donuts. surely its just some that was slung out the line. I'll change the fluid tonight.

I'm really not too worried about the heat. Surely a differential designed to be a friction lock system would generate a lot of heat. Like I said, I drove 15miles and could barely feel any warmth in the case, I just noticed the heat after doing a lot of turns.

[DALAZ_68]

well last i checked via KAAZ websit...30min of figure 8's, change fluid...happy fun time after...

i hope you didnt do donuts wiht the original fluid...im just sayin...i followed procedure and my 2way works great...

[s14unimog]

Right, and I'm not so much worried, as curious about the functionality characteristics of a clutch type differential. I'm sure that little bit of playing around hasn't done any damage. Hell I knew a guy who had a Nismo 1.5 installed in his Z33 and he didn't/hasn't done a break in or changed the fluid ever. Now I would never encourage that, and I believe that guy is an idiot for other reasons, but it is an experience to note.

Have you ever jacked your car up and felt what I'm describing though?

[DALAZ_68]

Originally Posted by s14unimog

Right, and I'm not so much worried, as curious about the functionality characteristics of a clutch type differential. I'm sure that little bit of playing around hasn't done any damage. Hell I knew a guy who had a Nismo 1.5 installed in his Z33 and he didn't/hasn't done a break in or changed the fluid ever. Now I would never encourage that, and I believe that guy is an idiot for other reasons, but it is an experience to note.

Have you ever jacked your car up and felt what I'm describing though?

yeah...its heat, its normal...who would figure rotating metal surrounded by fluid...that aid fluid would get hot...if ur so worried about it get the extended fin rear cover and swap it out...call it a day...

[s14unimog]

no need to sound excessive, but a clutch type differential is uniquely different than other differentials and so would have different characteristics. As I stated before, and as you did, causing excessive gear engagement can cause heat to build up too. I expected this but just wonder if others noticed the heat as well.

As for the other symptom I found this picture to better explain what I was asking. When I jack up the car and twist the wheel forward and backwards, to see the "play" relative to the driveline and axles, am I really just seeing this cam movement?