tomei lsd advise

[Goldeneye9mm]

ok i did some searching on this site and others and found some mixed answers so i'm looking for someone with experience to fill me in. i bought a tomei lsd for my s13 with open rear. i'm concerned with pinion lash and shim spacing. some places said that if you put the shims in the way they came out you'll be fine and others said to check and reshim it accordingly. also i'm looking for some torque specs for the ring gear to diff and bearing caps. any professional insight is greatly appreciated.

[4x4le]

My way is not professional, but i have done a few without issue.

Put the shims in the same way they came out and you should be fine. Reasoning, all of the carriers should be the same spec, the housings are whats different. Tomie seems to have got it right with the nissan spec. I do always double check my work with a dial indicator and marking grease.

As far as the tq, i threadlock them and impact them on.

Not a professional rear end guy but have never had a problem with tomeis doing this. I have not installed anything other than oem carriers and tomies though.

[Goldeneye9mm]

You've had no issues with these installations? It sounds safe enough but I am a mechanic but I've never replaced a rear before. I just know how wrong things can go. Anyone else with input? I haven't gotten it yet so I'm going to speak advice till I install it. Thanks again for you input btw.

[4x4le]

No, I have not had trouble. This advice was given to me from Anthony from EAT motorsports and I had used it a few times myself and I have sold quite a few of these lsd's (I can get you a good price too) and I have always used this method to install them or given this advice to the customer. No ill effects.

I also look at it this way, the lsd itself isnt what would be ruined if there were to be a problem, it would be the ring and pinion gear. So worst case scenario you would need a new open or welded diff to do the install in again if it actually happened to wear out. There would also be a warning, It would whine like a mofo if it wasnt right. I personally use a dial indicator and marking grease (to check where the ring and pinion gears meash) however after seeing how good the results always are I almost wouldnt have bothered buying the dial indicator and would have just rolled with throwing them in this way.


If you want, we can talk about break in too.
I do the figure 8's like they say too, but I use cheap non synthetic coastal oil with NO lsd additives for the break in. I did the figure 8's for about a half hour, bring some friends because each person will only have about 10 minutes in them. Its boring, tiresome, and embarrassing. after the figure 8's I drain the diff and refill it with cheap coastal fluid and do some in town driving (this I guess is optional) and then come back and drain it again.

Now you can either use the tomie fluid that came with it, (you might as well because its like $50 a can) or you can fill it with the coastal fluid. Same weight as the tomie, I think 85w90, and I go to the ford dealer and get a small bottle of ford (motorcraft) friction modifier and put it into the diff as well. Now you just made some high quality diff fluid for cheap. The best way I have found to open diff fill and drain is with a small handle non ratchet breaker bar. putting the friction modifier in the diff I do first before I pump the coastal in, I use a oil/gas mixing syringe for 2 stroke engines.
The diff will be agressive at first, and for a while. By agressive i mean just as annoying as a welded so dont worry, you didnt do anything wrong. I change my fluid often, with the oil changes and it will start calming down. It will get to the point to when I only change the fluid when the diff starts acting up wanting to lock all the time acting annoying again. A fluid change will tell it to shut up and it will become smart again and lock on demand, not as often as it pleases.

Mine is a good few years old, and my car has more miles put on it drifting on tracks than it does on the street however when I drive it on the street the diff has great manners and some people have asked what diff I have or if its a vlsd because of how good its manners are. They are shocked either way because they know a vlsd wouldnt be able to do what mine does on the track, but a 2 way normally is more annoying on the street.



Not trying to overwhelm your thread, just figured Id throw in my experience about it all now that Im not on my phone.

[AVmagneticZ]

hm your saying not to use the additive on the break in period...i installed my 2 way not to long ago its just sitting in the garage waiting to be put back in the car and i used cheap oil as well as the friction modifier, whats the reason you say not to do this just cause of cost?

[4x4le]

Cost really isnt much of a factor at like $6 a bottle. My thoughts (which were given to me by someone else at first) are that your breaking it in which means your TRYING to cause some initial wear on it. Using the additive is just going to prolong your break in period or potentially screw up the break in. Its kinda like how you dont use synthetic during an engine break in.


I guess you could try it with the modifier and see what happens, or you could drain it out and just save it for later use.

[AVmagneticZ]

ok thank u

[Goldeneye9mm]

Ok I got the diff in and I did the figure 8's and drained the oil for tomei fluid. The chatter/bind is a little rough when parking and whatnot but I checked the gear mesh after putting it in and it looked good so I threw it in but I hard a slight clicking/whine (very faint) when near jersey walls and curbs. Is that the diff or am I a retarded and not check the mesh right?

[4x4le]

I have noticed before that it wants to activate at odd times if one tire is worn more than the other or if my alinment gets off. Clicking and whine can be something to look out for possibly. Jack the car up in the rear and put it on stands. Run it at hwy speeds in 5th and see if it sounds odd. You may be being critical on it because your looking for something to be wrong, but then again i havent heard your car...

My gearbox makes plenty of whine, so i never would know if anything else was.

[Goldeneye9mm]

Well the rear tires are only 3 weeks old so no difference in right there and the only other thing it could be is my rotors. I put blotted ones on a month or so ago but I never noticed the noise before now. I may be looking for something that's no there but I don't wanna ruin 800 but worth of diff because I read marking grease wrong.

[4x4le]

thats the thing, the lsd will be fine, its the ring and pinion that can go bad if you didnt read it right. Did the marks line up in the middle of the gear, just like they did with the stock carrier? Did you put the shims back the way they came out and on the same sides?

If so you should be fine. Ive never had an issue with any of these.

[Goldeneye9mm]

Yeah they went in on the same sides the came out of and I torqued everything to factory specs. The marking grease showed a market that was about 80-90% engaged right in the center of the tooth face. No if the ships went back in on the same side but not the same order would that hut anything? I couldn't remember if the 2 shim side was thick shims toward or away from the diff...