Diff Run In

[salad]

just wonderin where you guys go to run in your mechanical diffs. random car park at night?

has anyone ever been approached by a cop doin this? what was your excuse for doin this?

cheers, showza

[Kinks]

there's no need to do a burnout to run in a diff.

[salad]

no, youve got me wrong. i probly didnt write it clearly

figure 8s as in driving around (not spinning the wheels) to bed in clutch plates

[T04GTR]

just drive it normaly for a few weeks. couple of tight turns etc etc.

[salad]

ah k

i was reading on the kaaz website (im getting a kaaz 1.5way) that i should do the figure 8s.

have you had any problems with not running the diff in with figure 8s?

[midnight]

I did the kaaz run in proceedure, make sure u change the oil afterwards too.

have fun, after 30min of constant figure 8s I felt like i was going to throw up for the next 2hrs

[Kinks]

the only difference the kaaz run-in makes is that rather than having 1000km of your diff feeling harsh because it hasn't worn in yet, you have a yak in the bushes after making yourself dizzy and the diff is fine

I wouldn't do half an hour of figure 8's... got better things to do with my time. would consider doing an old pac run to bed in a diff though

[monster]

I did my run in of my Cusco 2 way at the top of Old Pac in that big car park. I was stopped by coppers, I told them what I was doing... he then proceeded to tell me that he used to be in Mark Skaife's pit crew when he raced the 32...

I guess I was just lucky

But yes the throwing up is worth it, like any brake pad and/or clutch, if you dont bed them in evenly one side will lock sooner than the other, you can get vibration and all sorts of shit, trust me... i've seen it all!!!

Even if you dont, let me put it this way: Its a $1000 part and its half-an our of your life... what have you got to loose?

[Laurence]

I took the slightly different approach of doing figure S's in an industrial area

With a couple of figure U's

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

yeah, but me and a friend found that after bedding in the kaaz diff's properly and changing the oil, they still have a very harsh engagement. Not that i find that a problem (well.. my car has a locker).

We did it in dandy stockyards, which is right on a major road, we didn't get stopped or anything.

It's easy to explain your way out of, just print out the bed-in instructions and show them to the cop!

[salad]

arent mechanical diffs illegal? (just thought any sort of mod was illegal )

or should i get a tradeplate and do it late at night and then tell the cop its a track car?

and did you guys put shitty tyres on the back for it? or didnt it make much difference with wearing your tyres

Edited October 24, 2006 by salad

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

arent mechanical diffs illegal? (just thought any sort of mod was illegal )

or should i get a tradeplate and do it late at night and then tell the cop its a track car?

and did you guys put shitty tyres on the back for it? or didnt it make much difference with wearing your tyres

it's a grey area.... some gtr's came with mechanical lsds from factory, and i'm sure there were other cars with them stock. Most cops wouldn't know the law on that one.. just find a quiet carpark somewhere on a sunday, i doubt you'll have any problems. I mean, i've cleared defects with a fully locked diff before, and the roadworthy guys have said that there is nothing in the book that says you can't have a locked diff.

It won't wear tyres enough to be a concern, if you're hitting the track / twisties hard, tyre wear will be 10-20 times what it is doing low speed figure 8s

[salad]

awesome, no worries. will get this done soon

cheers for the help guys

[Kinks]

i've cleared defects with a fully locked diff before, and the roadworthy guys have said that there is nothing in the book that says you can't have a locked diff.

wow. that's quite surprising - my R31 had a locker and I always assumed it was highly illegal.. the way it behaved in the wet it should be! (anything that's that much fun surely has to be against the law haha)

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

lol, yeah kinks - I know what you mean.

my street car has had a locker for 2 years, and i always say this when people ask me if it's dangerous.

"Is it dangerous NOT to have an LSD?"

if you are in a situation where your car is going sideways, wouldn't you want to reliably and predictably be able to put the power down?

A locker is as reliably and predictable as you can get, stock lsd's and very worn mech diffs have a habit of crapping out (single spinning) at the worst possible time.

They take a bit of getting used to, and can be dangerous for a novice, but i like to be in full control of my car, and i don't get that feeling with a viscous, or even mechs which can be hard to predict when they will lock up.

[MANWHOR3]

t04 gtr is very wrong. If you actually do the run in, you notice that it actually changes a lot.

When you first put the new diff in, you can tell it isn't runnign well. it feels, well, not run in.

After you do the first oil change after runin, the oil is filled with metal shards.

I would definitely do it.

It won't get any cop attention. a donut or butnout is that last thing you want to do. if a cop comes, just say i'm not doing anythign illegal, feel free to watch me. Show them the run in instructinos, just say i'm just driving in a figure 8, not doing donuts.

If you don't run it in, it'll rattle and clunk more.

[MANWHOR3]

hoenstly, it doesn't do much to your tyres. you'll notice that it'll always crab walk when you do tight turns even after the run in anyways.

But it only does it at slow speeds, so tyre wear is not that bad.

I mean, do you do the odd skiddy/powerover here and there? I do, and that'll wear the tyres more.

[Kinks]

if you are in a situation where your car is going sideways, wouldn't you want to reliably and predictably be able to put the power down?

A locker is as reliably and predictable as you can get, stock lsd's and very worn mech diffs have a habit of crapping out (single spinning) at the worst possible time.

They take a bit of getting used to, and can be dangerous for a novice, but i like to be in full control of my car, and i don't get that feeling with a viscous, or even mechs which can be hard to predict when they will lock up.

That's the one benefit of a locker, if you put your foot down around a corner you were going sideways - no ifs, buts or wondering when it would come out it always did, right on cue.

The same handling trait in the hands of a novice will result in them reversing the car into a pole at high speed, and the other thing lockers do is give you horrible understeer when you're off-throttle. That almost caught me out when I overcooked a corner, you really have to throttle them through the twisty stuff.

The stock viscous LSD is reasonable (I'm fortunate enough to have one in great nick). I will eventually be upgrading to a 1.5 way mechanical though..

[salad]

yep, mine was in awesome condition when i got it. a lot of trackdays later, i can hold one wheel and turn the other...

shes rooted...

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

yeah, there are a few people drifting with viscous lsd's they work ok for a while, and then it gets really ugly. I know of a few people who have hit stuff due to a single spinning viscous (when drifting), and it's ugly.

My skyline's lsd was stuffed when i bought it, it could do donuts in second gear for about 10 seconds then crap out and start going straight.