Originally Posted by
samshirley00
not tight, my spelling is terrible. I tried it on the road quickly, and when i went full throttle, the spur gear span, and the car didn't accelerate much.....
I looked at the manual, but it wasn't very clear on what to do.....
Sounds like you haven't tightened the diff up enough. If you follow the instructions unless you know exactly how the diff should be assembled it's easy to get it wrong. Take the diff nut off the axle, and the three washers that sit against the bearing. Now look at the two steel spring washers and you will notice they aren't flat, the centre hole is raised slightly on one side. These two washers are the springs that keep the diff together and tensioned. First the alloy cone drops on the axle narrow end first, so it rests against the centre of the bearing. Now you fit the two spring washers on, with the raised section in the middle nearer the nut so the centre is raised. The diff nut pushing against these washers is what puts spring tension on the diff to keep it together. Now fit the nut and tighten it until it's against the washers.
Now to adjust the diff setting hold both rear wheels, one in each hand, and try and push the spur gear round with your thumb. If the gear moves tighten the diff nut up a little and try again. Keep on tightening the nut a little until you can no longer turn the spur gear, or you can only move it with a lot of pushing. Your diff is now set correctly.
American cars all need the same size allen drivers, you need a 3/32 driver for the larger screws. You also really need a 1/16th for the smaller screws, although you can get away with a 1.5mm driver in an emergency, it will round off the slightly bigger socket very quickly. The nuts are all imperial as well, rather than buy nut drivers for just the one car, buy the
Associated moulded tool set, part number AS6956
Oh, and the 96 tooth spur was standard issue for running these cars indoors, I always had a plentiful supply of them.