custom Type II Torsen diff

[Cedarville]

Has anyone looked into constructing a T-2 housing from scratch? Do you think that aluminum would provide an acceptable spin surface for the element gears?

I'm also looking for closeup pictures of any T-2 diffs. Does anyone know the gear ratio between the side and element gears?

Any comments/suggestions appreciated

Joel

[Cedarville]

Has anyone looked into constructing a T-2 housing from scratch? Do you think that aluminum would provide an acceptable spin surface for the element gears?

I'm also looking for closeup pictures of any T-2 diffs. Does anyone know the gear ratio between the side and element gears?

Any comments/suggestions appreciated

Joel

[Foote]

This has been talked about alot. Use the Find button.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

everyone (and there mom) has run the torsen at one point, look up things like torque bias, torsen splines, custom housing...

its a pain to work with and not ideal for our application.

[Analogue]

Wow, people are more jumpy than usual. Sure, search the forums is the stock response, but the the question that was asked was whether aluminum made a decent bearing surface for the T-2 gears to run against. The T-2 has hardly been touched on the forums.

For those unfamilar with the T-2, it is NOT THE SAME as the University Special.

My opinion is that it is risky to run the element gears against aluminum. However, short of sleeving with something harder, I think it's the only possible solution. For example, I think hard anodizing would fail much sooner than untreated aluminum.

Gut feel is it would last a while, probably an endurance race, maybe a season. But it won't live nearly forever...

Unfortunately, the sleeve needs to be a really ugly shape. the T-1 torsens lend themselves to housing manufacture much better. There are many opinions on what's better than a Torsen, but it's still a fine option for many teams.

Keith

[Underthefloor]

I don't think that an aluminum surface would work. As far as I can tell, the element gear teeth rub against the housing. With aluminum, if the teeth dig into the housing it will chew up the aluminum or lock the differential.

You could probably sleeve it fairly easily as long as they are semi cylindrical.

[Pavan Dendi]

We have used the Type 2 Torsen from a Miata with our own aluminum housing for about 5 years now. We have never had any problems with chewing up the aluminum(both 6061 and 2024). It will break in a little though after some use, usually requiring one more shim to get back to the original TBR. We just make sure to use a reamer for the final pass on the gear surfaces. I believe we moved from the Type-1 to the Type-2 in 2001 since the housing is much simpler to machine.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

we had the uni special, which if I recall has the same gears as the t-2 just its a 1 piece housing instead of 2. either way, if its the same gears, its the same problems. The aluminum will get chewed up and stick between the gears and to the friction disks. Either make some inserts(possibly brass or??) or hard coat (anodize) the housing.

[jdstuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by drivetrainUW-Platt:
... if I recall has the same gears as the t-2 just its a 1 piece housing instead of 2 ... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just as a point of clarification, as Analogue mentioned before, the T-1 and the T-2 are NOT the same:

T-1 (aka, University special).....
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jdstuff/T1.jpg

....and the T-2, which is similar to a Quaife
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jdstuff/T2.jpg

Hope that helps with some of the confusion. We've never run the T-2, but with the T-1 two steel thrust washers at either end of the thrust gears has always been sufficient. We don't put anything between the element gears and the aluminum (7075) housing. Our oldest aluminum housing is 3 years old and still looks great.

[Chris Boyden]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">For example, I think hard anodizing would fail much sooner than untreated aluminum. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This doesn't make sense to me...
You can source Al rod Hard Anodizing with a Rockwell 60 harness. It seems like a Hole that is hard anodized would last longer than untreated aluminum

[Analogue]

It's a peak pressure thing combined with the horrors of cyclic loading on aluminum. Imagine covering play-dough with ceramic. When the dough underneath flexes, the ceramic fractures and spals. This is why hard anodized aluminum gears fail quickly.

Hard anodizing is, as you pointed out, very hard. It makes a great bearing surface when the forces are spread out and relatively constant.

Keith