Help! when installing a diff

[jayj23]

Howdy guys,

Just swapped out my r180 diff in my s13 to a shimmed r200. The car now drives like crap. It's really clunky and knocks around corners and the inside wheel locks when turning right. It does not feel safe at all and is pretty much undrivable.

I have no idea what the problem could be. Is it true that you need to mark the driveshaft(or output shafts I can't remember which one) before you remove the diff and put the new one in the exact same way?

Would really appreciate some help as this is my first time,
Cheers.

[RBD240]

Thats what a shimmed diff does, its not a 2 way. Not smooth at all.

Almost worse then a welded diff.

Was it shimmed properly?

[jayj23]

Thanks,
I've been in cars with shimmed diffs before and they didn't drive like this, they felt normal. I thought the whole point of shimming a vlsd was to tighten it back up to the way it left the factory.

The first thought I had was it's been shimmed wrong but then my buddy(who builds dune buggies) said the driveshaft has to go back on in the exact way it came off or the timing will be out. I don't really see how this would effect cornering but it's the only other alternative I have right now.

[Shadowhunter]

The driveshaft is round with 4 bolt holes, how the hell is it going to throw your timing off? Or are you talking about the locking properties of the diff? In either case it really does not matter. Check your backlash or take it to a shop to have them check backlash properly, someone dun fucked up.

[jayj23]

Yeah it didn't make sense to me either.

[jayj23]

Just took it for another drive and I'm kind of thinking it's supposed to be this way. The guy I bought it off of said that it was just freshly shimmed very tight. I'm pretty sure he intended to use it on his track only car so I'm guessing streetability wasn't an issue when he was doing it. I intend to eventually track this car so i guess the tighter the better.

Is it normal for a really tight diff to be fairly bumpy and noisy at slow speeds e.g when parking or turning onto a road from a stop?

Also now that I think about it i was pretty much only taking right turns when i was testing out in an industrial area and on roundabouts so that's probably why it felt uneven.http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/doh.gif

If all this sounds fairly normal than I have no problem with putting up with it just want to make sure I didn't get a dud.

oh and btw how long do tight shims usually last?

Cheers for your help guys.

[fcdrifter20]

u are suppose to mark the driveshaft when u remove it that way it doesnt get thrown off balance when u put it backed. but shimmed diffs feel like shit when driving it for daily. i dont think u should have any problems with the shims wearing out anytime soon. i did one about 1 year ago and to this day, the diff hasnt givin any problems

[jayj23]

u are suppose to mark the driveshaft when u remove it that way it doesnt get thrown off balance when u put it backed. but shimmed diffs feel like shit when driving it for daily. i dont think u should have any problems with the shims wearing out anytime soon. i did one about 1 year ago and to this day, the diff hasnt givin any problems

Yeah I just found out he meant mark the driveshaft when you remove it but I didn't take it out when I put in the diff.

Guess I'll see how it goes for a little while. I can always swap between the two diffs for track and street driving.

[projectRDM]

The driveshaft is round with 4 bolt holes, how the hell is it going to throw your timing off? Or are you talking about the locking properties of the diff? In either case it really does not matter. Check your backlash or take it to a shop to have them check backlash properly, someone dun fucked up.

The OE driveshaft is balanced to the differential, there's a white paint mark on both that lines up. When you start swapping parts though it no longer matters.