Quaife LSD group buy

[nosmonkey]

Afternoon all,

Been speaking with Quaife UK and Birds BMW with regards to producing an LSD for our cars. They've expressed interest in producing them, with a stipulation that a minimum order of 15 units would be required. I'm more than happy to drop my unit off for them to measure, we'd be looking at approx £920 + VAT for an ATB type diff. Seems like a great oppurtunity for us all especially with original side loader LSD's becoming so hard to find. I'd be looking to get the standard 8 bolt type crownwheel fitment as there's a greater availability of these for people to run their open diff CW+Pinion.

I could potentially arrange international postage. Who'd be interested?

Cheers,

Ahmet

 

[Ohmess]

Not sure I am interested, but you may have more takers in the US if you could arrange to have units shipped directly from Quaife UK and thereby avoid VAT. Perhaps you could find a US person willing to accept receipt of all the US units and distribute to US customers. Alternatively, if a handful of US customers determined to use the same shop to install their Quaife units, perhaps that shop could accept delivery.

 

[nosmonkey]

Not sure I am interested, but you may have more takers in the US if you could arrange to have units shipped directly from Quaife UK and thereby avoid VAT. Perhaps you could find a US person willing to accept receipt of all the US units and distribute to US customers. Alternatively, if a handful of US customers determined to use the same shop to install their Quaife units, perhaps that shop could accept delivery.

I'll speak to Birds. Quaife directed me to speak to them as they deal with their BMW products.

 

[JFENG]

I heard Mario at VSR1 has a redesigned LSD upgrade available for our side loaders and that it’s very robust compared to the original. I realize this is not an option for those in the UK. I’d hazard a guess that the cost with labor is similar to Quaile...

 

[nosmonkey]

I heard Mario at VSR1 has a redesigned LSD upgrade available for our side loaders and that it’s very robust compared to the original. I realize this is not an option for those in the UK. I’d hazard a guess that the cost with labor is similar to Quaile...

I'd be interested in a bit more information on that. Sent them over an e-mail as well as 2 spec transmissions over here which I saw were looking at producing them a few years back.

So far I've got 5 people interested, 10 more to go.

 

[JayWltrs]

Sent a PM. What do you mean by "ATB type?"

 

[nosmonkey]

Ripped directly from car throttle.


Quaife’s ATB (Automatic Torque Biasing) diff works on a similar principle to Torsen’s, but there are more planetary ‘worm’ gears, and they’re rotated 90 degrees in comparison. Sun gears sit at either side of the diff, which mesh with the driveshafts.
Generally it will operate like an open differential, but when you start to get greedy with the throttle and the torque looks for the path of least resistance, the ATB sends it back the other way, transferred to the opposite sun gear and driveshaft via the helical gears.
Pros
Once an ATB is fitted, you don’t need to touch it ever again - there’s nothing in it that’ll ever wear out in the lifetime of the car.
The ATB is also inherently strong due to the amount of gears used - Quaife tested it in a “military application,” where it kept going until 13,000lb ft of torque. At which point the test bench broke. Oops.

Anything up to 80 per cent of torque can be sent to one driven wheel with an ATB, which is why in a front-wheel drive application a geared differential will have that feeling of the nose being dragged into line under power. VW’s VAQ system (which is technically one half of a Haldex four-wheel drive system, rather than a proper diff) does go one better though, being able to send up to 100 per cent to one driven wheel.
Cons
The main drawback of any geared differential - Quaife, Torsen or otherwise - is if you lift a wheel, it’ll just spin up as though you have an open diff fitted. Is that an issue? Depends what you’re up to. In a motorsport application that may be problematic (we’ll get back to that later on when talking about plated diffs), but Quaife’s take for road car users is, “if you’re lifting a wheel, then you need to sort the suspension on your car.”
That’s fair enough, but it’s also worth pointing out a geared diff will also tend to spin up one wheel in low traction conditions, for instance when you’re on an icy surface.

 

[rsporsche]

I heard Mario at VSR1 has a redesigned LSD upgrade available for our side loaders and that it’s very robust compared to the original. I realize this is not an option for those in the UK. I’d hazard a guess that the cost with labor is similar to Quaile...

i know that Dan at Diffsonline was working on this, and he does a lot of work for Mario ... they are both great companies

 

[JayWltrs]

Ripped directly from car throttle.


Quaife’s ATB (Automatic Torque Biasing) diff works on a similar principle to Torsen’s, but there are more planetary ‘worm’ gears, and they’re rotated 90 degrees in comparison. Sun gears sit at either side of the diff, which mesh with the driveshafts.
Generally it will operate like an open differential, but when you start to get greedy with the throttle and the torque looks for the path of least resistance, the ATB sends it back the other way, transferred to the opposite sun gear and driveshaft via the helical gears.
Pros
Once an ATB is fitted, you don’t need to touch it ever again - there’s nothing in it that’ll ever wear out in the lifetime of the car.
The ATB is also inherently strong due to the amount of gears used - Quaife tested it in a “military application,” where it kept going until 13,000lb ft of torque. At which point the test bench broke. Oops.

Anything up to 80 per cent of torque can be sent to one driven wheel with an ATB, which is why in a front-wheel drive application a geared differential will have that feeling of the nose being dragged into line under power. VW’s VAQ system (which is technically one half of a Haldex four-wheel drive system, rather than a proper diff) does go one better though, being able to send up to 100 per cent to one driven wheel.
Cons
The main drawback of any geared differential - Quaife, Torsen or otherwise - is if you lift a wheel, it’ll just spin up as though you have an open diff fitted. Is that an issue? Depends what you’re up to. In a motorsport application that may be problematic (we’ll get back to that later on when talking about plated diffs), but Quaife’s take for road car users is, “if you’re lifting a wheel, then you need to sort the suspension on your car.”
That’s fair enough, but it’s also worth pointing out a geared diff will also tend to spin up one wheel in low traction conditions, for instance when you’re on an icy surface.

Thanks. Very helpful! The driven-wheel lift was what Tom Baruch (former DC BMW shop owner) explained to me was the problem of having too stiff of a rear sway bar on an open-diff car & why he surmised they left sway bars off stock 1974 coupes that had additional rear support. There are some great old pics of racing coupes & 2002s on 3 wheels.

I do miss setting up & sliding my 87 VW into corners with front wheels spinning through the oversteer!