The perfect Diff.
 

I don't have one.

I would like some of the keys to getting a slip free diff everytime .

I would also like to know how to properly seat a new diff.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave.:nod:

Watch the Jilles Groskamp video part 2. They are all great videos, so just watch them all, but 2 is the diff rebuild.

http://www.redrc.net/page/2/?s=jilles

You never want a diff to be TOTALLY slip-free. There needs to be a little bit of slip. You want it so you can barely turn the left wheel while the right wheel and the spur gear are being held.

As for secrets, all I usually do is blast off the diff balls with motor spray, and sand down the high spots on the diff rings.

Seating a diff is extremely easy. Once your diff is together and in your car, hold onto one wheel and apply power gradually. Do the same by holding the other wheel, then recheck your diff setting.

You never want your diff to slip period. Especially in mod, or you will have a meltdown.

If your diff doesn't use D-rings, then you need to make sure you use the right kind of grease (maybe even loctite), to stop the rings from slipping on the out drives. The shumacher grease seems to work well. I am going to mod my xray diff to take the older d-rings, as one of my diffs seems to want to slip the rings on the outdrives quite easily, but the other one is solid as a rock :confused: Could be a surface finish thing.

It also depends on the diff you have, the Xray and the Photon diffs are awesome, super free with 0 slip.

rebuild properly. sanding the diff rings is a must. uneven pressure from thrust bearings can also cause slipping. replace if necessary.

Here is a very good article - Offroad-cult on ball diffs (translated)

Makes a few good points - namely that roughing up the diff plates will wear away almost immediately, and that ceramic balls are not necesarily as superior as you might think.

Fundamentally, for a good diff you need clean, well manufactured parts, correctly lubricated and adjusted. Pretty simple really.

The TOP Photon diff is the best I have built in touring. It has alloy outdrives, a well moulded pulley, and interestingly uses belleville washers, which may create more even pressure than a coil spring. A little silicone grease on the balls, and a fat squirt of black grease on the thrust, and you're done! Adjustment will usually start from hand-tight and 1/8 to 1/4 turn backed off.

I agree on the Photon diff being awesome, but the diff rings in it are shoddy - they're conical shaped too, and required about 30 minutes of sanding per ring to get them flat... but once they were - smoooooth...

Oddly enough I noticed the coned shape - but I didn't prep them at all, and the diff is superb!

The Photon diff is great. The best I ever had.
The Xray comes close but everybody can set the Photon diff right.
I used an almost slip free diff last Sunday. It may not slip when you drive so when you use a powerful motor, you need to tighten the diff more.
I drive with a 10,5 with lipo and I tighten the diff fully and than turn just a bit back so it's almost fully locked. I like this the most.
The diff is always very smooth and it will not slip.

I use ceramic ball's. You need to replace them also some times. They don't last for ever but longer than the steel ones.
When I change the diff ball's, I also change the diff plates.

After the first few runs with a new diff, I check the diff to see how the diff is. In most of the times I can loosen the diff a bit. It's also a check if the diff is alright. I don't have a thing to run my diff in so I do it with some practice runs.

What I aim for is a diff that doesn't slip and is free. Just follow Groskamps video and you can't go wrong. One way of wearing your diff in is to hold one wheel and apply some power. After a short time (say 30s to 1 min) change over to the other wheel. This is seems to work fine for me. Once you have done this recheck that the diff is still tight and run from there.

Ceramic thrust bearings seem to work great, I have used the Axiom ceramic thrust bearings with success.

Mike

On my first diff, I prepped the rings decently (but not perfect) and had a weird diff that was fine 95% of the time, but every once in a while would bind slightly. Diff #2 I built later and ground on those rings until both sides of each ring was perfect, and the difference was very noticable - that diff is silky smooth. Then I did a quick rebuild of diff #1 and didn't prep the rings at all and it was very smooth and had no binding, but was short of Diff #2...

I've been told that you can find pre-ground Associated rings that fit the diff (minus the D notch)

Don't forget to sand the thrust race rings as well.

Skiddins