Ok there are like 10 pages of threads about LSDs on this site.
general conclusions, buy a quaife.

I had orginally thought Phantom Grip but I do more autoX style driving than straight line

i can either get the quaife and eat ramen for a few months to get it installed, try the obx one or one from this site http://www.amcparts.net/

on a side note, i talked to Brad at Hahn and they are testing the OBX in their cars right now.

I am interested in the one from amcparts.net, I remember seeing the website in an older thread but no one had ever tried it.

Does anyone have any experience with this LSD, ideas, suggestions etc.

after my horrible 15.1 at 104mph this weekend i would be the guinea pig and try the OBX if i knew their warranty was good.

i decided to go with the OBX LSD

for better or worse as soon as it gets here and i get it installed we will see how well it works

in addition to the LSD i am considering doing the neon tranny swap as well figured i could get the neon tranny, open it up and put the LSD in so there wouldnt be as much down time for the car

as far as i have discovered i need these parts to put the new LSD in

Speedo gear 1 4797316
Bearing Cups 2 4567022
Cone Roller bearings 2 4567025AB
Mopar Trans fluid 3 4874465
Differential ring gear bolts 12 4761105
Case half sealant 1 4318083
Diff pin retainer brackets ** 2 04800059AA
Axle seal 2 4797334

is there anything else i need that anyone can think of
other than a tranny jack

i have 2 hydrolic floor jacks but no transmission adapter
also my dad has a car lift and bearing press in his garage so getting the car in the air and pressing the new bearings in shouldnt be a problem

maybe a new rear mainseal just in case

i would like to find a good write up on how to take out the transmission since this is the first time.

i have chiltons manual but still a little nervous.

I'm also looking at getting a OBX sometime soon.

http://dope.dhs.org/car_stuff/Tech_Articles/Tranny_Diff_Swap_How-To/


This site tells you how to install it.


Hope this helps,

Brian

so its time to get started

i got the LSD in

it actually looks good
machine work is good. its not a mirror finish but it doesnt look like a 2 year old did it. the diff is completely enclosed so i cant see the spider gears without taking it apart.

I also got my neon tranny in so i need to start working on that swap as well.

plus my stage 2 axles from the driveshaft shop finally got in.

after a lot of soul searching plus the fact that i work 12 hours a day and just dont feel like going into something that deep on the weekends, i dropped the car off at my favorite mechanics and told him to call me when its back together

just to be on the safe side i am having a new rear mainseal put in as well

wish me luck

good luck....lol

That's fucking exciting dude. I wanna know how it feels when you go for a drive. I want some lsd too ;)

i went over and checked on things yesterday

the guy that i decided to have do the work for me has the neon tranny completely disassembled and was going over the synchros with a fine tooth comb.

i told him that all he had to do was swap the bellhousing but he wanted to make sure that there were no problems first

he wants to just put the neon guts in the eclipse casing.

I asked him what he thought of the differential and he said initial once over it looks to be a solid piece. he hasnt tore it down yet to look inside

sounds like everythign is goin as planed......

Some other forums write in their reports about the obx that not all the bolts are torqued down the same. In other words some arnt torqued down any harder then by hand and some neede some real presuation. So have your guy go over them.

yeah thats the first thing i checked

they were all right at 50ft/lbs on average

some were less some were more the highest was 55lbs

he is going to completely take apart the unit anyway so i didnt bother tightening anything

any updates on the obx?

yeah its still sitting on the mechanics workbench in the box

2 weeks now and he hasnt even started on it

then again i am only getting charged half price on labor so i shouldnt complain too much

i wish i had the time or garage space to tackle this myself

update
the tranny is back together

i had the neon tranny completly rebuilt rather than just swapping bellhousings

was told that the diff went in great
the allen head bolts were torqued to spec and that it looked great inside the unit

so hopefully by the weekend i can try it out

how exciting. Good luck

Well i took a chance and got screwed.
LSD went in fine no problems fit was perfect

got the tranny in
put the axles in and BAM the spider gears are not machined correctly. I dont understand the mechanics behind what holds the axle clips in place but in a nutshell the axles will not go all the way into the diff.
at first we thought that the axles from driveshaftshop.com were bad so we tried the oem axles and had the same problem.

so there we go
test subject
guinea pig whatever you want to call it
i took one for the team and lost my ass
i cant even get a hold of the company i bought the thing from to even try to get a refund.

so at first i thought about just putting the oem diff back in but that would put me back at square one traction wise so i orderd a phantom grip with the upgraded springs
at least i know these things work
once this thing blows up the tranny
notice i said when not if

i am going to push betsy off of the nearest cliff

either way

DO NOT GET AN OBX LSD IT IS A PIECE OF CRAP

ok heres the final word
after getting out the mic and calipers and measuring what is going on here is the problem.

our axles must go into the differential/casing 2.8 inches before the c clip will spring out and lock into place.

the hole in the LSD is not deep enough
it has the shelf(for lack of a better term) that the c clip will go against but the hole was only drilled deep enough to allow the axle to go in 2.6 inches

20 thousandths of a inch is what is stopping this thing from working
so before i put on the phantom grip i ordered we are going to see if we can get that .20" machined out

oh well the saga continues

Originally posted by baxsom
ok heres the final word after getting out the mic and calipers and measuring what is going on here is the problem. our axles must go into the differential/casing 2.8 inches before the c clip will spring out and lock into place. the hole in the LSD is not deep enough it has the shelf(for lack of a better term) that the c clip will go against but the hole was only drilled deep enough to allow the axle to go in 2.6 inches 20 thousandths of a inch is what is stopping this thing from working so before i put on the phantom grip i ordered we are going to see if we can get that .20" machined out oh well the saga continues

Interesting... Does anyone know if the Neon axle is slightly different than the 2GNT axle?

OBX has had a hard time getting the c-clips right on a lot of applications. They either don't taper the back side of the hole on their early designs which locks the axle in the diff (oops major problem) or in this case don't get the measurements right.


I say screw the c-clips they don't do anyting when the axle is installed anyway as I stated in the previous post. Other than that and a few other minor machining issues the OBX is worthwhile. It isn't as nice as a Quaife but hey it isn't the cost.

-Rich

Originally posted by baxsom
so i orderd a phantom grip with the upgraded springs at least i know these things work

They do not work, they are a scam. It is impossible for the phantom grip design to EVER work, it would need springs on the order of suspention springs. Don't believe me? I have one. It doesn't work at all. Still don't believe me? Ask Dino, or Kulaga.

If you really want traction, suck it up and fork over the $1k for a Quaife, or get a Diff. Retrofit.

well there is already one coming so at this point i am about ready to destroy the entire car just for the insurance money


it aggravates me because guys on the neon.org site are raving about their OBX LSDs with no problems

did i just get the bad one off the line or what

what would happen if i put the axle in without the snap ring

the axle goes in just not far enough for the snap ring to lock
but it does go in far enough for the spindle to go onto the hub
and bolt the rest of the suspension back up

You gotta have that snap ring... Unless you want your axles coming out.

How are you guys going about installing the axles into the trans? You have to pop them in just like you pop them out. I usually have to shove them in pretty hard for them to lock in. Just food for thought in case you're mearly sliding them in. :shrug If that IS how you're going about trying to install them, im really disappointed because I was thinking about buying the same unit.

well thats what i thought too but get this

i measured the depth of the holt

the axle needs 2.8 inches to completely lock in
the hole depth is 2.6 inches

the hole on the passengers side measured to 2.9 so it locked in fine

even putting a mallet on it didnt help

So last night after thinking really hard about it I decided to have a Quaife 2 day aired to me.

if this thing has problems then I am going to torch the car

Originally posted by baxsom
So last night after thinking really hard about it I decided to have a Quaife 2 day aired to me.

must be nice!

yeah it was the money i had been saving to paint the car along with the 97 bumper and sideskirts i bought
but function before form

You may of just got a bad OBX Diff. I think the general consensus is that the OBX works but their QA sucks. I know a lot of the Honda guys usually disasemble their diffs and check them defore installing. Did you try calling OBX directly about the issue?

the obx website is down so i cant get their number
i sent them an email on friday but no reply yet

if someone has their number it would be great

i finally convinced the company i bought the OBX unit from to take it back. they told me that if it comes back in new condition and it is truly defective then i could get a refund because once again
they have sold hundreds of these units for eclipses and neons and i am the first one with a problem

my quaife comes in tomorrow.
first thing is to measure the holes where the axles go and see how much clearance it has on the drivers side.
if even it only has 2.6 inches of depth then i know there is a problem

So the quaife shows up today
took my new axles and they clicked right in no problems

life is good
now i just need to put the quaife in the tranny
and sell my soul to pay the shop that is doing it

Originally posted by ner947
You gotta have that snap ring... Unless you want your axles coming out.

You don't need c-clips...

The c clips in a FWD strut car don't hold in the axles like they do in a RWD differential such as a Chryco 8.25 or other c-clip axles.

They are only there to hold the axles in when you take the hub off from the ball joint. The turbododge cars don't even have them from the factory and the CV preload holds them in just fine!

The reason they are there is so that when you take the hub off the baljoint the axle doesn't come out and make a tranny fluid stain on the floor...

There is nowhere for them to go since the hub keeps preload on it as long as it is attached to the balljoint. If the balljoint isn't connected then you have bigger problems!

-Rich

Originally posted by ner947

Originally posted by baxsom so i orderd a phantom grip with the upgraded springs at least i know these things work

They do not work, they are a scam. It is impossible for the phantom grip design to EVER work, it would need springs on the order of suspention springs. Don't believe me? I have one. It doesn't work at all. Still don't believe me? Ask Dino, or Kulaga. If you really want traction, suck it up and fork over the $1k for a Quaife, or get a Diff. Retrofit.

I don't know how well the PG works on the street but it helps in the sand! Both tires (barely) pulled me out of some deep sand at the beach, I had to use my rubber floormats for some added traction but it didn't do the one spinning wheel of death...

SO today I finally got my car back. During the reinstall my TOB was looking kinda rough so they replaced it. Other than that the Quaife went in perfectly with no problems.

Performance. I havent really got on it yet but just driving it home. Smooth, very smooth. The neon tranny was completely rebuilt and it feels like it.

The stage 2 axles from www.driveshaftshop.com went in perfect.

Now I just cant wait to get this thing to the track and see what it can do with two wheels pulling.

I am going to drive it for a week or so and let that diff and synchros wear in before I try to break any speed records.

wow craziness

I installed the old newskool slip in diffs when I rebuilt my engine. I've put 10k miles on it and I love it, despite the things I've heard of it. The car grips and handles awesome. I also took it to 2 drift events so it's been put through some extreme testing, you gotta spin dem tires.

I got a phantom grip on my Z and it doesn't seem that good, I can feel it gripping and pushing me but if I try to do donuts with it I can feel it slipping.

Putting that bellhousing sucked ass I'll tell you that, that neon page looks like they had a bearing retaining on it to keep it from falling out when you put it in, that bearing caused me sooo much grief >.< I hear you can keep it in there with vaseline

Originally posted by HadesOmega
wow hear you can keep it in there with vaseline

yep
there is nothing that vaseline cant do

yup. i just went with the quaife to begin with. no problems. and my driveshaftshop stage 5's fit perfect with it.

holy crap the stage 5's
how many ponies are you putting down

Originally posted by baxsom
yeah thats the first thing i checked they were all right at 50ft/lbs on average some were less some were more the highest was 55lbs he is going to completely take apart the unit anyway so i didnt bother tightening anything

Not that it caused any of your problems but 55 ft/lbs is WAY too tight for a M8 12.9 fastener. According to most bolt specs the upper limit on 12.9 M8 bolt is only 29ft/lbs lubricated. It might be slightly more if dry but why install dry?

Sorry I don't want to nit pick so much on this topic since I am a newbie here but I wouldn't want everyone to overtighten them and have one snap off in a tranny someday.

Hopefully I am not offending anyone by giving a little bit of positive support for the OBX LSD. I don't really like the company that much either but hey this product isn't half bad for what it is.

-Rich

the techs at dodge torque the ring gear bolts to 70 ft lb, and they ar a 12.9 grade bolt..

Originally posted by streetlightning
the techs at dodge torque the ring gear bolts to 70 ft lb, and they ar a 12.9 grade bolt..

If I remember correctly those are M12 (much bigger) not M8.

The 12.9 is the material hardness much like grade 5 and grade 8 in standard bolts.

M6-M24 is the size of the bolt.

M8 12.9 max torque is ~28ft*lbs
M10 12.9 max torque is ~50ft*lbs
M12 12.9 max torque is ~85ft*lbs

Obviously larger bolts are stronger and hence can be tighter.

-Rich

Part number 4761105 was superseded by part number 5017180AA. 4800059AA is the diff retainer brackets, not 04800059AA. (just updating part #'s and info). sorry to bring the dead back