Re-bult diff locks once torqued up
Turbo Mini Forums

Well iv re-built my standard diff, with the crown wheel bolted on finger tight the output shafts spin lovely and the diff feels great, but as soon as i torque the bolts up, the output shafts lock solid and even with the pot joints pushed on i cant twist the output shafts atall...

The original fiber washers were well past it (one was only half a washer and the other was rubbed down so it was only half width) when i took the diff apart so i cant even build it up with those.

So will it be ok to use the diff like this as obviously in use it would rotate and free up over a short period of time, but it just doesnt feel right fitting the diff with it locked...

MiniSpares sell those fibre washers in two different thicknesses. I think it does need to be able to turn by hand. Mine was tight when I rebuilt mine but I could still turn it.

should be able to turn by hand.

if you build it tight, you cannot judge how much wear is needed on those thrusts to bring it to "stsndard" shall we say. risk being you may end up with thrusts much worse than those you took out.

Common problem this recently. Its the Mica (fibre) washers, the new ones are a bit on the thick side.

Find some decent used ones, or, if it is the case, fit the thinner ones from minispares

I glued some wet n dry to a board & carefully rubbed the washers over the board to reduce their thickness, so when the diff was assembled you could turn it by hand.

I used a vernier caliper to make sure the washers had an even thickness.

It took a fair amount of trial & error though!

Yea true, ill strip the diff out of a spare gearbox to see what the thrust washers are like it that...

If not ill check minispares.