well its coming time for me to make the decision of either rebulding my trans or finding a replacement.
so should i buy the master rebuild kit and have it overhauled
or should i get the vlsd used.?
also what are the advanteages of the vlsd in everyday driving. is it better in the snow and rain as well?

 

the vlsd is fantastic in every respect

 

You probably won't even notice the VLSD. I wouldn't bother with it unless you have big plans for your car. Viscous limited slips are the bottom of the LSD totem pole honestly. You might be able to get a used trans (VLSD or not) for cheaper than a rebuild though.

 

It will be cheaper to just swap in a vlsd or open diff than rebuild your current transmission, just the parts alone will cost almost as much as a used tranmission

 

Rebuild it and get a quaife. You will find this at http://cattman.com/prod_traction.html

 

I see you live in the northeast, the vlsd is great in the snow. Gives you better traction and more control, especially when climbing a hill in ice/snow. For the price of a rebuild you can get a used low mileage VLSD trans and don't forget you need a drivers' side axle to make it work.

 

Im also try to decide which trans to go with. Neal, do you think the VLSD is worth it over open-diff if your putting down 300-350whp? Im looking for trannies right now and if the VLSD is not worth the trouble then ill just get an open-diff.

I need the tranny ASAP so future plan might be to rebuild it with a Quaife, cyroed and shotpeened gears if I still have the car. I really want a TT 300Z but I dont think I will ever be able to sell the Maxima.

 

I beg to differ. My car was orignally an open diff OEM 5speed. When my tranny started making the bearing noise i swapped it for a VLSD tranny. The difference is day and night. Day to day driving. Cornering. When it rains and when it snows. I can tell its there. It may not help in stright line drag racing but it does make it self know when your turn into a corner.If you can get one i say do it. its def worth it.

 

the bearing noise, what the heck is that, and i wonder if my max is now making the bearing noise ?

 

haha this reminds me of my paranoia of my clutch going.. Quaife sounds like a good alternative to me but then again Neal and those guys know their ****, ask them.

 

Quaife is awesome but Cattman stopped carrying it years ago. I can't believe he still has it on the site. IIRC he was going to do a complete website redesign over a year ago and yet the old site is still up.

Since there are no US distributors of the Quaife (for Maximas) anymore, and due to the strength of the British pound over the US dollar, I believe Cattman said it would cost well over $1500 a unit even if we had 10 or more people. You can search for that thread if you're curious.

 

I've noticed virtually no difference from VLSD to open diff. I never have driven the car in the snow though, and I don't floor it in the rain because it will spin the tires in 5th gear in the rain anyways. Not noticing the difference may however be because my car has enough power to spin both tires when coming out of a corner regardless of if one has grip or both. But I can't sit here and say "VLSD is great it makes such a difference" because the multiple VLSD cars I've driven have not behaved any differently than my open diff cars. I wish I'd had a chance to test a VLSD in a car with less power than my current one, as it may be more noticeable than it is in my turbo car.

 

They stopped making the quaife for our cars like 2 years ago. Unless you are friends with someone at quaife who is willing to make a small batch of them for you, you won't find one new. You could get a used one though.

 

I have found a few VLSDs for a fair price so it cant hurt to got with a VLSD then. Anyone know if a VLSD have more problems or break easier then a open-diff?

 

I say go with vlsd you will be happy in the long run lol long run get it lol

 

does neone know where i can get a good vlsd tranny for a fair price

 

How much power does a VLSD sap versus an OD?

 

Made a bunch of calls today for all the VLSDs I found and I came up with nothing for a fair price and mileage. I can have a well rebuilt open diff trans for $600 so thats probably what I will do.

 

Parts alone are under $250. I don't follow your logic.

Whether you have the time/skills to properly rebuild it is another story.

Personally, I don't trust used trannys much. Unless it doens't bother you to pull a tranny more than once, the economics of spending $500 in labor to put in a tranny that might not last long makes little sense to me.

As for the VLSD game, if you really want it, go for it. I dont' have it and it doesn't bother me much. Like Nealoc said, it's not exactly the cats meow of differential technology.

Dave

 

Two words ppl.. PHANTOM GRIP!!

 

Two more words if you go that route - rebuild again

 

I fail to see your logic.. You mean to have it put in?

I mean of course you have to take it apart, but at least you're gettign something worthwhile IMO.

 

I don't get this about vlsd trannsmissions not being great for straight line, I've heard people say that on here before as well, I've left more burnouts in my car then probably 90% of the people on this board and that thing is posi all the time, vlsd>clutch-pack lsd in my opinion, I've spanked on cars with both..........



The big one above is longer than any of the others, it looks like it's smaller than the one below but it is OVER 200ft long

 

^^^^^^^ that makes no sense...I have beaten cars with VLSD with my open diff...its all drive and knowing how to launch...Helical or Clutch Type

I Know of a car putting close to 350 whp with Phantom Grip daily driven and track driven...never had an issue

for a VLSD trans car-part.com for a 95-99 I30 5spd or 2001 AE Maxima 5spd

http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

 

Speed Sensitive

[edit] Viscous
The viscous type is generally simpler, and relies on the properties of a dilatant fluid - that is, one which thickens when subject to shear. Silicone-based oils are often used. Here, a chamber (a sort of cylindrical toroid) of fluid filled with a stack of perforated discs rotates with the normal motion of the output shafts. The inside surface of the chamber is coupled to one of the driveshafts, and the outside coupled to the diff carrier. Half of the discs are connected to the inner, the other half to the outer, they alternate inner/outer in the stack. Differential motion forces the interlocked (though untouching) discs to move through the fluid against each other. The greater the relative speed of the discs, the more resistance the fluid will put up to oppose this motion. In contrast to the mechanical type, the limiting action is much softer and more proportional to the slip, so for the average driver is easier to cope with.

Viscous LSDs are less efficient than mechanical types, that is, they "lose" some power. They do not stand up well to abuse, particularly any sustained load which overheats the silicone results in sudden permanent loss of the LSD effect.[3] They do have the virtue of failing gracefully, reverting to semi-open diff behaviour, without the graunching of metal particles / fragmented clutches. Typically a visco-differential that has covered 60,000 miles or more will be functioning largely as an open differential; this is a known weakness of the original Eunos Roadster sports car. The silicone oil is factory sealed in a separate chamber from the gear oil surrounding the rest of the diff. This is not serviceable and when the diff's behaviour deteriorates, the VLSD centre is replaced.


- Wikipedia

 

yeah well whoever wrote the article for wikipedia is WRONG! look at the pics above, that is with 175K and it is clearly not "functioning largely as an open differential" Also, viscous fluids have a property of turning from a liquid to a solid at a higher temperature, which is created under extreme pressure

 

Tell that to the 240 guys/ drifters.

 

So because u made longer burnouts u think VLSD is better???? or am I missing something.......too many variations that can present for this......

 

Some ppl can't take the truth.. A 70/30 TQ bias also sucks, but hell what do they care.

 

yes you're missing something here, the article says that a vlsd will wear out at 60k, yet clearly the pics above with 175k it is still causing tq to go to BOTH drive wheels, length of them had nothing to do with it, no need for an attitude. Also, if you don't believe me I really don't care, but heres one more bit of info and I challange anyone to prove otherwise. viscous newtonian liquids turn from a liquid to a solid at higher temperatures, the opposite of everything you learned in 3rd grade science class, that is why under higher shear rates they turn from a liquid to a solid, because shearing creates friction which creates heat. SO, in the wikipedia article that was written 20 years ago, it says this "particularly any sustained load which overheats the silicone results in sudden permanent loss of the LSD effect". That is flat out wrong and if you can prove otherwise more power to ya

 

so because a general article says that VLSD will wear at about 60k and urs still works at 175k that makes it better.....AGAIN too many variables here.....have u ever driven a car with HLSD or a quaife...its a total different feel than an VLSD equipped car.....**** man my 89 Escort GT left a 150ft burnout with both wheels.....when it was 12yrs old....i am aruging the fact that u said VLSD > clutch-type

 

ummmm, a 70/30 tourqe bias? since when did the maxima become awd?

 

Being able to leave two black lines doesn't mean your VLSD is working or not working. I've left two lines in all my open diff cars when I've done burnouts.

 

you missed that I said 'in my opinion' right after I said it's better, my opinion is in a straight line vlsd will always spin both, but a convential lsd will not always spin both, the clutches can slip and are prone to wear, especially if they are worn. Also, I'm not positive on what I'm about to say, but this is why the 240 guys don't like vlsd, it seems to me that 99% of the time a vlsd can not hit the break-away tourqe for some reason when the when the tires are already spinning in a turn and the inside is spinning slower, I don't know why they behave this way but it's not like a clutch-pack which will almost always lock-up when the break away tourqe is reached, regardless of whether you're in a turn. I totally agree with you, I feel vlsd<clsd in corners, but in a straight line the vlsd will always lock both drive wheels, and I don't know why they blow in corners but they do, when I made that comment I was thinking only for straight line since that's all I personally care about myself. I'm not trying to argue with you guys about ALL this stuff, just that the wikipedia article is wrong about several aspects of vlsd. Also, I would really like to know why vlsd never seems to lock up in turns.

 

nealoc, it sorta does. I've left 2-wheels in open dif cars as well, my vw golf that I got for $100 and got it running that day left many a posi slabs, but deffinitly NOT all the time, show me a car that will do it EVERY SINGLE TIME with an open-dif and I'll buy the car from you. Yeah, last time I checked both wheels spun the same when in the air, that's the 'proper' way to test any lsd, even according to the fsm for our cars, but if you ask me leaving a few slabs and seeing if power is really going to both wheels is a little more accurate, open difs will fire just one the majority of the time.

 

umm, side to side.

 

I tell ya what man, come to FL and we'll test my cusco 2-way in my RB-S13 against your VLSD in every situation and maybe then you'll understand.

The same goes for having say a quaife in a maxima. It's superior in every way I don't see why you dont agree.




(I've got it 1.5 currently)

 

I agree with you, vlsd is not superior in every situation, I said that above, and when I said it was better I said it was better in my opinion, I didn't say it was better in every situation, for some reason they never seem to lock-up when the speed difference between wheels is to great, and I know you know your ish so maybe you can elaborate on this for me, I would like to know. As for the florida challange, let's both do 20 brakestands into a hardcore straight line acceleration, I bet you that we both never spin just one tire! The loser has to buy the winner 3 drinks.

As for the 70/30, alright, I thought you were just bashing me there and trying to talk ish, sorry. But where are you getting the info from that the vlsd in our cars has a 70/30 tq bias? once it reaches the break-away tourqe and fully locks up it SHOULD be 50/50, clutch or viscous.

 

I'm actually quoting a VLSD TQ bias number from a 240, but it's never a full 50/50 until you get a mech diff.



Every once and a while I let myself go, I apoligize..

 

interesting, I never knew that. Anyways, no need for the apologies, it's all good. I was hoping you were going to take the bet though, I'm going to miami for spring break, I'm not positive I'll be driving in the I' or my freinds mustang though