just chased up the info for someone,

been 10 years since i bought one

spring load locker (same type as phantom grip lsd) good for dirt and wet, or up to 200hp

$450 to fit to a diff centre you supply

will post details of place in melb if anyone is keen for them?

Thanks mic- really looking at this for my car than r31 LSD which I think is overkill.

whats the difference between this and a welded locker?

Quote:

Spring loaded locker locks the rear wheels together only sometimes, when under load from spinning.

Depending on the specific type it 'more or less' works like a cone or plate type lsd. The springs help push theside gears out so they rub hard on the carrier (as opposed the cones that do it, but have a cone (a bit like a synchro in a gearbox) that rubs on the carrier (and is usually softer material, so the lsd cone wears and not the inside of the carrier). the spring tension helps, but additional outward force comes from the spider gears and the angle of them, so as force is applied some pushes the side gears outward. the higher the force, the more they'll be pushed outward, so the higher the resulting friction.

Even though the cone type lsd centres have an advantage of them being deliberately softer, and hence not grinding away or damaging the carrier inner surfaces - in practice it seems these other ones don't wear it out much quicker, so it's not a major thing to worry about. About the only final issue is that since the surfaces that are providing the friction are existing ones, that weren't designed from the outset in terms of shape/material/contact pattern (where as cone and plate type lsd carriers are designed with that in mind from the start) - well anyhoo- the end result is that the friction/grip tends not to lock the axles as hard together as a 'regular' lsd would, so there'll be more slippage, and on a related note, they alo tend not to lock up as consistently or predictably as a properly setup plate type (or cone type either).

Biggest advantage(s) over a spool or fully locked or welded diff -

Much more predictable in the wet, far less risk of a spin during even a mild corner. Similarly on dirt - not just rallying, but just everyday driving - a fully locked diff is actaully a lot easier to spin the car. Just a 'little' bit of give actually makes for a safer and more efficient result on dirt/gravel.

no corner entry understeer/mid corner transition issues (locked diff will tend to try and keep the car going straight at corner entry, and it's also easier to oversteer too much as you roll on the throttle from mid-corner/corner exit.

Locked diffs are a pain for shopping centre car park and other similar tight turns.

Locked diffs are relatively more likely to break axles (as they are stressed during most corners, and one of which sees force in the 'opposite' direction to how power is normally transmitted through them,

On the other hand - if you are drag racing, and presumably the axles can handle it (maybe a h190 diff zetup), then the locked or spool diff is the go for sure.

That's how the phantom grip work.

The spring-loaded-locker 'looks' like the spring-loaded LSD (phantom grip) but they are supposed to have a locking pin in them to actually lock the side gears. If I understood correctly. ...

Looking at the material used, I wonder if some kind of coating
like of ceramic or teflon composite would help the gears bite
in more and have less chance of wear?
Im thinking of my days of rotary rebuilds where the composite
rotor seals are the way to go for longer durability and less
wear to all the surfaces.

Also if enough peeps are interested couldnt someone fab up
a batch of the pieces and source the springs all in one go?
Ill be in for 2.

I made one once, was a hell of a lot of work setting up mills, but making a batch would help. Or ...don't be so tight and You could buy em off the guys that have been doing em for years

Even I'm considering not being tight on this lol

I have one in my car.
It's pretty worn now. It must have 60+ quarter mile passes on it. Although it does still feel like its giving a two wheel push when I'm corning at speed. (Unless thats just my warped old chassis lol)

They work by being sprung against the sidegears, so that when the sidegears want to spin in opposite directions to the plate tries to rotate with the sidegear. But each plate has a semi eliptical slot milled in it where the center pin which the idler pinions run on goes. The plates must be precision ground so that there is only 1-1.5 thou clearance between the trough of the slot/groove and the pin itself.
So as the plate tries to twist/rotoate with the side gear, the semi eliptical slot shears agsinst the curvature of the pin. And it pushes against the sidegear, pusinh it aginst the housing which tries to stop the gear from spinning.
The sidegears must be surface ground flat when the unit is made. For one to increase the surface area of the sidegear. But more importantly so the face of the sidegear runs true to the back face of the sidegear. (They look to be machined true at a glance, but they can run as much as 5 thou or more out)
For this reason, each unit must be made for each center.
Back when Paul (1200Coupe) first posted up pics of ones he'd made, I was asking him for measurements. But once he explained it all to me, we just went ahead and made it.

The local shop who used to custom make my springs stopped doing them. So now I get a guy down in Dunedin to make them. Most units only use four springs. But the ones I had made used 6. The same guy recently made up some new springs for a tickled up borg warner lsd in the old boys ranger ute.