Over the weekend I started installing the Quaife ATB LSD into my used 350z with an open differential. The 350z comes with a 3.53 final drive and since I will be boosted soon it seemed like a better choice for traction than the stock 3.69 gears. I apologize in advance for the shitty iphone pictures, its difficult to do an install and take photos =]
350z diff and Quaife LSD
The open carrier, WEAKSAUCE
Bearing caps and output shafts removed
Due to the factory installed thread locker, the ring gear needs to be removed with an impact gun, or locked in a vice with a super long breaker bar. Some of these bolts had to be hit for 30 seconds to even break free.
Here you can see the output shafts, bearing caps, shims, races, oem open carrier with bearings and the new Quaife with ring gear installed. The 2 flat washers are shims, these sit on each side of the carrier between the races and the housing. Adjusting these shims is how you set backlash between the ring and pinion gear.
New bearings/races and output shaft oil seals
I'm waiting for the 370z diff bushing kit from whiteline so in the meantime i got these whiteline diff bushing inserts for the 350z which should help a bit. These basically sit inside the stock shitty bushing to help eliminate any flexing.
Pressing the new bearings onto the Quaife with harbor freight 12-ton press.
New bearings, yay. Note the ring gear hasn't been torqued down yet which is why theres a gap.
Punching out the old output shaft oil seals
New seals installed, installing these without the specialty tools is basically the same process as removing them. You start pressing it in by hand and then using a large flat punch gently tap all around the outside evenly until its seated in place.
After the LSD is torqued in place you want to check engagement pattern using some marking compound
I was actually expecting this to be perfect since I didn't change gearing at all, but unfortunately I will have to adjust the backlash to correct the pattern.
The contact pattern is about even between the root and the flank (bottom and top of the teeth), but its too far towards the toe (inside), we want this centered on the teeth so it needs to be shifted towards the heel (outside). If the pattern did not look good on the flank/root we would want to adjust the pinion depth first by changing shims on the pinion gear, this is typically only necessary when changing gearing.
To get the correct contact pattern I'll need increase the backlash a bit by reducing the shim on the left and increasing it by the same amount on the right. This will basically slide the ring gear to the left which if done in the correct increments will give us the contact pattern we are looking for.
I'll update the thread later in the week once I get the appropriate sized shims from nissan.