Impressions after welding center diff

[GSX_Dan]

Well a few things are noisier other than the expected wheel skipping in tight turns. For one my front axles act like their coming apart upon low speed turns as if I had really bad CV joints, but they never made noise before the welding. I am not too worried about that as it only does it at low speed turns, it's just more embarrasing than anything. Also when I reverse the car and start turning a little more than 20-30degrees I hear a loud snap coming from the rear end once, then it doesn't do it again. Could this be the LSD simply not being able to skip the wheels while in reverse like it does in forward movement? I had this symptom with my 3 bolt (which I snapped after the 1st launch on the welded diff), and with my 4 bolt, both LSD.

The other issue I'm not pleased with is that I have a shep built tranny that used to shift with ease but now the "gate" when you go into gears seems to be much more pronounced and it takes more effort to get the gear....anyone else notice this?

Something that might be worth mentioning is that my viscous coupling was VERY hard to get on as the splines didn't perfectly match after the welding. I had to try a couple of different orientations before it actually lined up but even then it still took some hammering to get it all the way down. The welding was done at TRE. Could this be related to the shifting difficulty?

 

[jtmcinder]

Something that might be worth mentioning is that my viscous coupling was VERY hard to get on as the splines didn't perfectly match after the welding.

Do you have a welded center diff or a VCE? The thread-title says the former, but this sentence suggests the latter.

- Jtoby

 

[GSX_Dan]

I have a welded diff, but I was under the impression I had to put the viscous coupling back on otherwise the output shaft for the transfer case would freely come out. I wish I didn't have to since it's a few pounds of rotating mass.

 

[4pistons]

I had to put the viscous coupling back on otherwise the output shaft for the transfer case would freely come out.

You are correct. You need to either put the old VC back on or use a VC Eliminator. Something must hold the small retaining ball in order to retain the output shaft.

Welding the VC should have NOTHING ot do with shifting difficulty. The two really aren't related.

Rick - '91 GSX