W5M31 center diff question

[Phant0maz]

Hello. I can't find any confirmation if W5M33 has the same center differential as W5M31? Asking because I would like to fit Quaife differential in my 2g Space wagon W5M31 gearbox. Any thoughts?

 

[bastarddsm]

Hello. I can't find any confirmation if w5m33 has the same center differential as w5m31? Asking because I would like to fit quaife differential in my 2g Space wagon w5m31 gearbox. Any thoughts?

No the W5M33 drives from 3rd on the intermediate shaft, the W5M31 drives from 4th. The gear is part of the diff body on the W5M33, and bolts on the top of the W5M31.

 

[Phant0maz]

No the W5M33 drives from 3rd on the intermediate shaft, the W5M31 drives from 4th. The gear is part of the diff body on the W5M33, and bolts on the top of the W5M31.

It makes sense. I read about 4th vs 3rd difference, but thought mitsubishi managed to deal with this and still use the same diff.

I guess no option for helical w5m31 CD?

 

[twicks69]

There are no W5M31 center diff options. The differential was completely different than the W5M33 transmission, and driven off 4th gear on the intermediate shaft as Kurt stated. The final drive in the rear diff (2.846) and front diff (62 tooth w/ matching pinion gear) are different than other options, such as the RVR, or Evo 1-3 variants. Is your gearbox a W5M31-2-TXPL? That one had a 61 tooth front diff ring gear and then matching pinion gear, and then would have used a 97-99 style DSM / Evo 3 style 1.074 ratio 29/27-tooth transfer case gearset.

Do you have a Quaife helical center differential already? Those were discontinued many years ago and were failure prone due to the gear tooth profile not perfectly meshing up with the Mitsu intermediate shaft and it would kill the gear on the shaft or crack the teeth on the Quaife diff housing.

The only doable swap would be to change to a 1995-1999 DSM / Evo 1/2/3 open front diff trans, or a RVR style W5M33 based transmission, swap the rear diff final drive to match, and then run a matching front diff final drive depending on which transfer case you are using. You would need to swap over the shift selector lever arm if you ran a 2g DSM style trans. The lever arm on the space runner, chariot, RVR and Evo 1-3 all used the same style selector lever arm.