hey guys i feel im hogging the forum but ive come across a diff i once though was eligable to go into my 1000 ute. not sure if this applys to 1200 and all 1000 guys but this may new a gower for overall price. ive measured my 1000 ute diff and its approx 1250mm from drum to drum. ive gone to the wreckers and found that the 200 series volvos diff is about 1280mm disk to disk. it is 5 stud but i rang and its not to expensive to get it changed to 4 stud. its also aparently a copy of a dama 30 diff found in many jeeps ect so there are various ratios available and they seem cheep to get hold of gears to make to 4.11. i think a lsd is about $300-400us to buy for it, its very strong but there is 2 types and 1 is almost impossible to get ratios for (aparently), handbrake cable should be easy to connect to the datto one too.

have any of u guys ever looked at it or know much about the volvo 200 series/dama 30 diffs?

DANA 30

They are too heavy. you have the lightest car ever made and then you are going to weigh
it down excessively. You might as well get a sprinter diff if you are going 4age from the
jap imports if still available.
H190 with alloy centre with replica phamtom grip like rallycar1200 should be good
not as good as LSD but you could wait to find a 79-83 720 vicous lsd which are rare
but have seen a few recently.

Sprinter diff is an H165 isn't it?

The best diff for a 1000 is the H145. Excepting that is if you want an LSD center.

yea dana dont kno what happend there. i might have the light car but it seems to handle and get traction better when theres weight in the back

for sure, especially increasing the front engine weight by 30kg.
How Id like if the 1000 came out with a tray back also it would
be under 600kg from factory :)

dont worry im a dick. i got the measurements wrong for the volvo diff. no wonder it was to good to be true :P

One quick 'bonus' for aussies looking at the volvo diff - it happens to have the same stud pattern as early holden, so (for example) you can run 13 in torana rims (steel ones for eg) cheaply enough to have wheel/tyre combos in sizes that are good for early dattos.

On the strength issue, they aren't bad. I dare say good enough for this app, but borderline for a decent NA 6 or boosted one. At one time, people were using them (or a hybrid using bw78 centres but volvo discs etc) on toranas but they never became really popular.

The one thing I will say from diff swapping on other cars. I went with a 9" really early with toranas and turbo red motors. Everyone said they'd rob power, but frankly, even with an NA 6 I never noticed it at all. The one thing I did notice was that it could launch harder and more predictably, the combo of slightly more unsprung weight in this case was a good one, and since the 9" axle tubes were bigger diameter, grafting the 4 link/trailing arm brackets onto it resulted in the bolt holes being about 1/2-1 inch further away from the axle centreline, which gave the chassis more 'leverage' to keep the axle tubes from trying to tramp etc. It was a HELL of a lot more stable. And based on my experiences, I really think that perhaps with the sole exception of rallying (though with rallying, you'd need a stronger diff anyway, since it's a very abusive type of competition) the unsprung weight is of no detriment and the potential added rigidity does wonders for launching, and by extension corner exit acceleration on a circuit car or a streeter.

I have to probably play devils advocate as well here. I'm not ancient, but I definitely am gettng to the point that I only really want to do any given job once. As such, the thought of potentially having to re-engineer a diff swap because an existing swap was easier but not strong enough, well it doesn't thrill me. I'd rather a bit of overkill on the drivetrain. If nothing else, if you get cranky one day and forget to drive to suit the drivetrain, you'll get away with it that way. With a 'strong enough' for proper use diff, if you crack it and start dumping the clutch or something, or maybe a missed shift, going from 2-3 and you end up in first, it might keep from breaking the diff (and if you are quick enough, you won't damage the engine either)

You meant to say 'sprung weight', right? The live axle is all sprung weight. Increasing this weight is not good for a smooth ride or for dynamic handling, but is no problem for a drag racer.

if you have 350+ lb ft of torque, go the 9".

bw78s also can be cut down to 1000 width easy enough...if you are going heavy you might as well go heavy and near on unbreakable