Quaife DIYer's HELP!!!
 

So everything was going well with the install until it came time to order my shims. Courtesyparts.com has zero shims on hand and they are backordered. I'm hoping that maybe someone that did this mod may possibly have some old shims lying around. My gap was a 0.0473 average so i'm looking for either two 0.0299 or one 0.0299 and a 0.0315 or any combination to get me there. I'm without a car right now so if you think you may have a shim buried in your garage, please take a look. I'm begging you!

Not sure if this is the right place to post this so Mod's, move as required.

apparently org members are the only people that check the shim measurement after replacing parts in a tranny. i've called every local trans rebuild shop in the area and the answer is the same. nothing. anybody got a dead trans sittin in their garage?

McMasters may have saved the day. Found this...

Type 316 Stainless Steel Shim, .030" Thick, 2" ID, 2-3/4" OD, packs of 5

the ID is off but not buy enough to make a difference i think. Any input on material choice. The bearing it will ride on looks stainless to me. i'm hoping the trans case can deal with this. either way it'll only be dissimilar metals until i get the right shims from Nissan. This just gets me on the road for now. I hope it works.

How did you measure shim size?

per the book. fully installed Quaife and bearings minus shims. check the play about 15 times with my mag base/dial indicator. averaged the numbers and plugged that into the chart that shows the appropriate shim size. or do you mean the ones i ordered?

well, it's all together. custom shims and all. we'll see how it holds up. i'm kinda let down by the lack of posts on this one. i know people here have installed these in the past on their own. i guess the org's knowledge base has moved on to bigger and better things. :(

Nah LOL peeps prolly just busy with other ish...
Have you read about the solder crush method? Thats what I used the first go around and 10k later I had to rebuild it again:mad: I don't think I had quite enough preload on the diff bearings anyway and I used the new opportunity to also replace the input shaft bearings since I had the whirring sound when the clutch pedal was released, quiet with it depressed. Well I guess just see how they hold up this time!:p

solder crush sounds alittle too suspect for me. the shims from McMasters worked out great. the only thing i had to do was open up the inner diameter so the bearing cage would be hard up against the washers since the cage sticks out past the outter race. it took some time with a dremel but it worked. i also put a lite coat of enamel on the flat were the shims go to prevent the dissimilar metals from contacting each other. install was actually alot easier than what i expected. i filled the tranny with conventional GL-4 and i'm hoping any impurities come out with it when i deservice and refill with amsoil after about 100 miles. probably not necessary but it seems like a good investment. i can tell in just the short drive i made that the difference is huge. even driving straight the steering has a different feel. almost heavier, but in a good way. i hit a couple turns with some speed and definitely noticed my lines were tighter with less steering input than before. between the Quaife and the Panhard Bar, this should make for some fun at the next autoX. now for the final ingredient... struts and springs!