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Differential Surprise

i have 170k on my stock diff.

its seen 300 WHP launches, slammed gears, burnouts around corners, etc.

now i can't guarantee you it's a stock diff yet, because if the wheel is straight, i get rubber from both tires. around a corner, its just the inside wheel. i do have the 4 bolt LCA's and probably the pre 98 diff. its held up so far, but i'm going quaife soon.
 
mine is an early built 98. i think may of 97. mine went out at 63k miles. completely broke the side gears into a million pieces. the pre 98 vs. post 98 debate is garbage in my mind like pud said
 
As long as we're posting photos, here's mine at 135,000 miles.

2334585002_4565bd3cdb.jpg


The Phantom Grip is just an insert that goes inside your stock differential, isn't it? That certainly wouldn't alleviate the weakness issues...
 
Jesus... I've never seen so much ugliness in one thread. Is it just me or do these all look like they've been under-lubed?
 
When I started my thread on my diff, there was a few pic replies of trashed diffs. When I took my pic the diff was out for a little bit, but you can still see the trans fluid.
 
Its a very common problem. Mostly because of hard driving, slamming gears, burn-outs. Its just a poorly made diff. I doubt the problem is lubrication, just a really crappy design.
 
SicSE said:
I haven't had my hands on any of these diffs. What makes it's design crappy when compared to a similar open diff that you would consider not crappy?
Click to expand...
i wouldnt say its a poor design, since it is just an open diff, but rather a poor choice of material.
 
There was a transmission tech telling me that the rings at the top of the diff made it very easy for the spider gears to slip around...maybe he was just blowing smoke but it looked like they was some serious play in the gears. Like stricker said, material is probably the key to the failure. If only every car came with a LSD.
 
A four pinion diff would have helped a lot. Back in the day, Ray McNary (RIP) said he had heard rumors that there was a four pinion diff for the MTX75 on some European Ford product, but was unable to pin it down. Really, for the work involved to get to it, you are better off replacing it with an LSD.
 
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