when you pull out the open diff, you just weld the sh!t out of the spider gears so you no longer have an open diff (nor do you have a limited slip diff)
this is great for a straight line acceleration non daily driven car. it sucks for just about everything else. it will wear the crap out of the rear tires faster than normal and making turning a pain in the ass (the sharper the worse)
I would only do it on a drag car or a dedicated drift missile. the problem with this is that both rear tires are 100% locked to each other.
when you are turning in a normal car, the inside tires are spinning slower than the outside tires will, this is why virtually every production performance car always has a LIMITED SLIP rear end. because if this small difference in speed between the inside and outside tires while turning, you need a small amount of slip to be allowed before locking up the rear. with a welded rear end not allowing any slipping at all, your rear tires will be fighting each other anytime you are turning. it also makes the car harder to turn (negatively effecting performance when not driving in a straight line) and it really gets annoying when making sharper turns especially at slower speeds (just as 90* into places or parking spots) the rear will just tend to just around a little bit as either the outside wheel gets dragged or (more likely) the inside wheels hops as it gets spun faster that it is traveling on the pavement. also if you drive the car year round and drive in slick situations such as snow and ice, it gets wild fast, keep in mind when making any turn, one of your rear tires will automatically lost traction and the rear end tends to kick hard and fast.
Source of knowledge: I owned a blown beater fox body back in the day. it was nice for drag racing but sucked all the rest of the time. guy I sold it to pulled the welded diff frist thing and just dropped a clutch based Trac-lok in it and it was 1000 times better, great traction with none of the downsides. just how much better and easier the car turned alone was well worth a $100 or so he paid for a GT pony diff to rep the Trac-lok out of, he didn't even bother with rebuilding it. its funny how much stupid shit you will put up with when you are young. however nowdays I'
m only doing it right and actually using LSDs. its actually high on the list of thing I want to do to my focus so I can stop the smoke show! only down side is due to the limited options availible, a LSD for it runs about a G...
Wow Nice reply. Ok I do thank your for the reply. So please don't take this the wrong way, you didn't answer the SPSully setup question with that explanation.
I completely understand how turning affects the outside tire, and I'm aware of the different setups. You seem adamant about it being a bad idea because of your experience with a Fox body. So I ask you, have you personally ridden in an LS with a locked rear end and widened tires?
I ask respectfully because, the LS is not a fox body. It is massively different, superior as a performance vehicle in every way (stock for Stock). And Being in one myself with a locked rear end with stiffened shocks as well widened tires, I can attest that cornering will not be an issue.
The uneven wear I am fully aware of, and I am fine with that. I'll rotate my tires and replace accordingly.
But thank you for the video about welding the spiders, good to know it can grenade. Also in the video he welds, that part could be it.
SPSully said he welded in a part. The part in question, he called it a locker. So either he went through the entire process of converting his vehicle to LSD (Doubt) or he bought a bracket of some kind and welded it in. I can't say I know enough about the internal workings of the Diff to make that guess myself. But his explanation at the time, though simple, leads me to believe he bought a part and welded it in.
I'm more or less asking, what could that part be, and if it does exist, what is the risk of welding that "Part" in place?
EDIT:
1LoudLS I will do more research on a welded diff to see what people feedbacks are. Thanks for the heads up.
