I pulled the ball diffs out of my TA03 last night to see if I can get them running smoothly for my mini. They were always pretty crunchy, even when brand new. I tried installing a standard 1150 bearing in place of the thrust bearing as has been suggested a while ago, and it felt pretty smooth, so I guess both my thrust bearings were duds. One thing I noticed though while trying the standard 1150 bearing, is that the large Belleville washer isn't large enough to rest on the outer race of the bearing. It presses on the rubber seal instead. No wonder the bearing didn't last long for the guys who tried it.

Any suggestions for a better alternative to the 53136 thrust bearing?