so i finally got a chance last night to get into my diff to see why it was screaming after the last autocross. this is what i found what you see here is the drive face of the ring gear teeth. the center shiny section is all that is left of the hardened surface of the gear. the rest of the face is worn through the hardening and into the soft metal. it didnt look as bad as i expected from the noise it was making! i figure that the extreme turning from autocross was forcing the oil out of the center section and out into the axle tubes. when i would apply the power coming out of the turns, there was no oil on the gears to protect them. so i put some baffles in to try to keep the oil in the center section better. heres the inside of the diff housing before the baffle. heres the baffle test fitted in the housing and here it is welded in. note i had to clearance it a little for the axle shaft to clear it. i dug out my thirdmember from my old black maverick and put it in. it has a 3.89 gear ratio vs the 4.10 ratio that was in the car. this shouldnt make too much of a difference. i think it could slow down my times a little. the 4.10s were perfect. i never had to shift to 3rd and never had to down shift to 1st for a any slow turns. now if there is a tight turn, im worried i might have to down shift for it. tomorrow is testing so ill find out if they have any tight turns set up. it was a little nicer on the freeway. with the 4.10s i would be at 3000 rpms at 75 now im at 2800 at the same speed. also nice is the autometer electronic speedo. it was simple to reprogram for the ratio change. im going to keep using them on builds.
The track is where you find the weak link...Think the axles will still get plenty of oil to the bearings with the baffles in place??? You might want to drill a hole in the bottom of the baffles to help drain back...The seam at the bottom of the baffle may not be enough. Definitely a good concept.
I'm not sure. I'll check on Monday and see if it has a brand marking on it. It's a good chance it's a motive gear set by I'm not sure.
I seem to remember seeing inboard axle seals for dirt track cars. They fit just into the axle tube from the center. Might be worth a look if the baffling isn't sufficient.
i looked at those. the problem i have is this is a truck housing and its tubes od is 3.125. i didnt check the id but its going to bigger than than the standard 3" od tube used on aftermarket housings that those seals are for.
We used internal axle seals made by Sealsit when we ran 9 inch rears in our stock cars using sealed axle bearings - worked great to keep the gear oil where it belonged http://www.sealsit.com/
