alrite guys, I just swapped my lsd out and went welded diff, and man its FREAKEN great .The steering is hella aggresive now just as ialways wanted. It way more predictable than afactory lsd, and it will kick out at will without much effort. Oh i dontwant to be liable for any shiz..do this at ur own risk.
I justwanted to do a quick short write up on how to setup your car with welded diff for those of youwho cant aford 2way lsds and want to drift. after all this work ul love it. and plz dont flame me out, I know some of you are scared of welded and think its scary dangerousand all then dont do it.

First of all, my car is a turbo2 s5, so my drive train is all t2. t2 drive train is different than the s4 NA or s5 NAs . T2s are like twice as beefier in drivetrain and fitment is larger. I believe only NAs came with open diffs, and all t2 models came with lsds[ either vlsd or cluth types]. The problem is a s4 or s5 open diff will not fit in at2 drive train, it wont fit with the t2 halfshafts or drive shaft. So im doing awrite up on how to make it work, just for some of you guys that wanted to go welded but is stuck with a t2.

You will need:

Open diff [from s4 or s5 na models]
s4 or s5 Na halfshafts
17mm socket ratchet and boxend tool
14mm ^^
19mm
breaker bar
pry bar
PB blaster or wd 40

Okay, the best thing to do is make sure you have a backup diff, incase something happens to your welded diff, or if it failed during the welding process.

1. Remove your current diff.
-jack up your car on jack stands, then remove your rear wheels, kee your ebrake up and remove the bottom rear shock with a17mm, and remove the sway bar link 14mm , then remove the halfshafts, its 4 nuts all 14mm, use a open boxend wrench for that. Just pry the halfshafts off, its ezier to pry em off once you have removed the shock and swaybar link. After that, you have to lower your subframe, I think is a 19mm on the twosubframe bolts under your front rear fender wheel well. just unbolt itbut not all theway. then unbolt the link where its holding the subframe, make sure u keep a jack under neath the subframe so itwont drop abrubtly. after the subframe is dropped, you will have access to these diff bolts.

remove the two diff bolts, theres actualy 2 sets of nuts thats easier to get, youll need a 17mm with along extension a breaker bar. once thats unbolted all thats left is the two 17mm nuts on your differential arms. just takes those off, and then get abig prybar, and pry the diff out if it doesnt just fall out. Oh yeah its up to you if you want to disconnect the driveshaft while its in the car, its easier to remove the diff if you disconect the driveshaft, but you dont really have to, it slides out of the tranny.

once you get your diff out, move on to your open diff,unscrew the diffs drain plug and you could either save the gear oil or dispose of it and put new one later. Disassemble the diff with 14mm or 12mm? cant rmemeber, but anyways unbolt all the screws and hammer out the stubshafts then remove the casing.
once you do that, remove the diff from the brackets, and keep the half shafts in the diff when you weld it to prevent extra weld from flying in the stubeshafts home. Weld all the spider gears together, and weld the outside gears to the casing. Becareful not to get any welds into the stubshafts. This will take maybe 30minutes of welding, take your time, make sure the welds are nice and strong. MAKE SURE THE WELDS are good. weld it over and over until all teh gears are stacked and covered to the casing!
after that let it chill and colll tdown for abit, DO NOT USE WATER to cool it down, itll weaken the steel, just let it air cool. assemble the diff, and I used sillacone sealant for the diff casing, it works good.

Okay now for the tricky part. The turbo 2 driveshaft will not fit your open diff, nor will a open diffs puny driveshaft fit the t2 tranny. What we need to do, is modifly the t2 driveshaft to fit the open diff. itl become a universal driveshaft for any diff. Its easy, get a dremel or drill and cut the holes inwards. Like this, and check to see if it fits ur diffs stub shaft. I know my cuts are lame, but hah it fits perfect,a nd its holding up strong when Idrive. once you fitte dall four holes, ur done. Its good. Its ready to be swappd in.

slide your drive shaft into the tranny and slide your diff onto your subframe, bench press it up, and lightly bolt it, dont tighten it yet, make sur eteh subframe is dropped low and carefuly fit the diff in, youll have to fight it alot, sometimes its really hard to fit in, as long as everything is loose, it will be easier to fit. Once its all in just tighten everything up and bolt everything .

The halfshafts, youll need to change to the NA ones. Its easy to remove, with the right tools. you wont need a impact gun, just use abreaker bar , make sure you unlock the bolt first witha small flat head. then hammer the halfshaft out ,careful not to mushroom it, swap the half shafts with the na ones and bolt it together and bam u have awelded setup on ur t2 !

when you initiate, you wont have to hammer the gas like crazy, just feather it at first and be ready to counter steer, and slowly get used to the full lock diff feeling, irecomend powertseering. manual steering is gunna be a bishhh for normal driving and drifting.

well goodluck.
any questions just post.

 

oh yeah for fcs use 80 90 gear oil. I think it takes about 1 and a quater quarts of it.

 

And your diff is junked, probably will start to whine in a couple hundred miles.

 

Wow you welded it with it still attached to the pinion. It is better to take the diff out and put it in a vice so you can work 360deg around it and slag does not get in the ring and pinion gears.

I wonder how long that little ring and pinion will hold power before it breaks.

 

200 miles lol

 

naw man i had it welded with the diff alone. while putting the diff back together I took pics before puting the case back on.

 

its ok to weld it while its still in the pumpkin =p
Its an open diff to be welded solid, so you dont wanna take too much time on it, and if you took it apart you would need to check for backlash and all that mess.

shoulda welded this part too

The spider gear to the spin shaft

But should be cool..

I had a nismo 2way lsd, i think i used some heavy oil for it heavier then 90 though

 

Did 10,000 miles (16,000km) on my last welded diff before it broke I'd always go for a 2way but welder is deffo next best thing.

 

Good write up mate.

 

Those welds look like ***. I bet it brakes in 500 miles.

 

I dought you had **** and **** laying in your gears either.

 

I like to weld my diff's solid. This was for my 60hp carolla. Needless to say it didn't budge.

 

Fair point it did once it exploded

 

I'm running 90w-140 or whatever in my welded right now... I think it might be too thick! I figured I'd run thick stuff because it will get very hot since it's a welded. I'm not getting very much gear noise at all and I have solid diff mounts, so it might be fine.

Opinions?

 

im running 80 90 w , its the spec for stock open diffs, I guess it feels alrite. Ive been daily driving since welded, its running great. YOU GUYS BETTER KNOCK ON WOOD LOL your trying to curse me LOL !!!

 

Good writup but i agree with t2rotor when i say those welds are ugly.

I would have packed that bitch full of weld....both sides....on med-high heat and anti-spatter on everything. I would have spent alot longer than 30 minutes welding small sections and then allowing the diff to cool off a little bit (but not too much) before starting again. I might do mine in a week or so.

Here's another good write-up. It's for a 240 but they have pretty much the same guts as an open fc diff...... The welding is sub-par birdshit but the coverage is good.

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu44Nzx...m/%3fq=node/25


Yes, i'm considering a welded diff. I'm not baller. I will go full 2 way but not any time soon.

P.S. It's SLAG. Not sahg, sag or whatever it is people like to call it these days..... Again, anti-spatter is your friend and you should protect everything and anything from spatter and distortion by any means possible.

 

If I could edit now to appease you almighty grammar **** I would, but I cant so shut the **** up.

 

If you're a welder, atleast use proper terminology.

Sag, imo would be when you try to bullshit gap weld on high heat and the weld and whatever it is your welding starts to melt excessively and sags.

Only reason i brough it up is because i've seen it on other forums as well as on the link i posted.

 

um.........maybe this post is pointless. and i guess im just one of the multi million that believes that one tires spinning a tad faster than the other is good on occasion. for a track car, sure, why not, if youre too broke. for a street car...........slap yourself.
anyways, the other thought i had, its called a differential pinion shaft.

Lloyd

 

ive had welded diffs in s13 for a long time. never broke.

i had a welded na diff in my t2 and sheered all the teeth off the ring gear after the very first event.

and to all the guys saying it will only last 200-500 miles... thats a lot of track time if you trailer your car and if done right your diff will def last for a long time. ran 2 complete seasons in different s13s but the same diff. never worried about it breaking and still dont and it still hasnt.

 

Thinking about doing this.

**calls kent for his NA diff**

 

I drove it over 1k miles already

 

dont you already hav a LSD? lol unless it a viscous do it son!!! Its going to start raining soon...weld diff + rain= sex

 

Nah man, I still got thhe wack open wheel garbage. Yeah, Im picking up Kent's open diff for teh project.

Dude, you gotta help me get the welds right. I want a flawless job done.

 

Im not the welder man, I took my diff to a local muffler shop had them weld it for me. Alot of my friends go there to weld their diffs, so the muffler shop guys have experience welding diffs. I just watched and told em where to weld. It took 30min. and the welder was getting tired, so I just said its fine.. But I kinda wished I couldve had more welding done to it.
most muffler shops would charge like 10-15 bux to weld it.Unless you have a friend or friends dad that welds it would be perfect.

Yeah I can tell you its going to be a new experience jumping from open to welded... But I think its a fast way to learn