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Center diff question

6K views 23 replies 3 participants last post by  350zluver 
#1 ·
I've had terrible luck with the AWD car. After a year of rebuilding just about everything I finally took it out to drive it last week and noticed it pulls to the left hard and spins the front tires under boost. Turns out the rear wheels aren't spinning. Also note that I just rebuilt the trans, except for the center diff. I took off the transfer case and if I hold the output shaft and spin the front axle the shaft doesn't move, so I'm pretty sure the center diff is the problem. I never heard a noise, and unfortunately I bought the car with a blown clutch so I never drove it before to know if the rear wheels were working. I'm on my last nerve with this thing, so sorry about the rant.

I have another trans, it's a 92 model, is the center diff the same as the one in the car, which is a 90? And do you think the center diff is my problem?

I'm really tired of spending money on this car, I need to make a build thread to explain just how ridiculous this car has been. Beautiful shell, but everything else on the car not so much
 
#3 ·
I'm not sure if the transfer case works, but it does spin properly when I put a shaft into it. No threads are torn up on it or anything. I will pop open the side cover in the next day or two and look inside of it. I have another one, just in case, but based on the design of the trans, I can't see why with the car in gear that the output shaft from the trans wouldn't spin when I turn the front axle. When in neutral it would kinda spin, but if I held firm on the shaft I could keep it from spinning when i rotated the front axle.
 
#5 ·
Your front diff is an open diff, you can't expect that to force the output shaft to spin. Your rotating by hand is very slow and offers very little torque to move anything else. Try jacking the car up off all 4 and letting it run in neutral and first at idle rpm range. That should be enough to make all 4 spin. If the rears don't, then look underneath at the driveshaft. If that isn't, pull the TC off and look at the output shaft.
 
#6 ·
I already did all this at my friend's shop last friday before I took the car apart, the rear is not spinning at all. No driveshaft movement. That's why I pulled the TC off in the first place, to see if it was turning properly outside the car. What exactly am I looking for on the output shaft? I saw no wear on the splines on the outer end of the shaft. No wear apparent on the TC either. I was going to open the TC to check out the internals, but I don't believe that to be my problem
 
#9 ·
UPDATE:
With the TC off and the car in gear the output shaft of the trans turns normally.

The TC off the car turns perfectly with ease on its own. Even took the side cover off and inspected the bearings and teeth on the gear, everything looks good, almost no wear at all.

Put the TC back on the car, left the driveshaft off, and the output of the TC does NOT turn!

I'm very confused, but looking more like it's the viscous coupler to me.

I also found out that despite the fact that both of my TC's are 90 models with the iron front housing, they have different spline counts, one is a 22 and one is a 23. That and the other TC is frozen, it won't spin (probably because it sat for 5-10 years)
 
#10 ·
It's sounding more and more like the viscous coupler, which is about the easiest part to replace. I have had center diffs fail where only the rear gets power and to have it change to where only the front gets power. But when a center diff fails you hear it and feel it. This all relates to my original post in this thread of how to test your VC. Perhaps you'll think twice about complaining about Talk over on Tuners about not getting the help you want?
 
#11 · (Edited)
Fair enough, but can you fault me for trying to find more than one opinion? That and my questions about parts interchange still haven't been answered

I don't have a big enough vice to test the VC, so I will take them off both of my transmissions and test each later this week. The previous owner of the car replaced two tires at a time, do you think this could have caused premature wear on it?
 
#15 ·
Ok so the results of the test were that neither VC twisted by hand in the vice. I found that when I removed the end case there was a thick gray fluid that looked like it had fine metal particulate in it that was only on the cover around the VC. As you can see from the pic I also removed the output shafts and found serious wear on the shaft that was in the car. Also found wear on the input splines of the transfer case. F**k me! I just keep finding more things to fix lol
 
#17 ·
The wear on the output shaft was so bad that it wasn't making consistent contact with the TC input shaft. Swapped it out and the rear wheels spin just fine with the car on jack stands. Then of course, when I try to back it out of the garage it starts to smoke like crazy and it smells like coolant. Turbo or HG blew and I didn't even leave the garage
 
#18 ·
Just to close this post by answering the question. One on the left be your later center diff (92-99). The one on the right be you early (89-90) No you can not just swap them w/o changing other parts.

BTW. This is off jack transmission web site. All you had to do was search.
Just to say about the post on here this morning about lazy people expecting to be spoon feed!
 
#22 ·
You can do it off the number on the Tranny to. To a extent. You should have a number like W5M33-2-NPZS. That number is your OEM Tranny. W5M33-2-NPXV. Would be you 92 Tranny. Almost same as the Evo 3. More info on gears sets.
http://www.jackstransmissions.com/pages/what-gear-set-do-you-have
In my opinion. 90-91 Trannys are junk. They have shit gear teeth, and a short 5th.
I'd switch to the 92 you have regardless. If it was me.
 
#24 ·
So it turns out I had a bad VC and a blown center diff! Along with all the other crap that I found along the way. I am in desperate need of a 90 or early 91 center diff if anyone has one. I have a 92 (I think) from a spare trans that I will trade because I have no use for it
 
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