Good to see you back Battlecat

Don't cement them. Wrap the rim with some electrical tape so the tires fit on snug. This is good because you can remove them later by cutting the ABS with a hobby knife, and not worry about breaking the rim removing cement.

Squad: Gear differentials and Ball diffs are mainly different in their construction, as I am sure you know. The thing about ball diffs, is that they are much smoother but the big advantage is adjusting the slip.

I am just gonna explain a bit about slip because I don't know if you are familiar with the concept. But anyways, if you pick up your car right now and spin 1 rear tire, the other should spin the opposite way. This happens because of the differential, and the gears. The reason why people put this in, instead of a solid axle is to help with turning. As I am sure you know, when you turn, the outside wheels actually travel a longer distance than the inner tire. The diff allows the outside tire to spin more than the inner tire of the turn.

Usually you use grease to adjust the slip, or how easily the diff allows one side to turn less. Basically, more resistance to slip in the diff will send more equal power to both wheels all the time. A locked differential is just like as if it were a solid axle, and is often used on off road situations.

You do NOT want to lock your diff in high traction situations, as this causes a lot of stress on your drivetrain. For drifting people often lock their differentials especially in the rear. Personally, I found this makes the car handle more predictably than with an open diff.

Ball diffs are good when you really need to tune the slip of your car, especially high traction situations. If you think about it, your car will be going faster with as much as a locked diff as possible, because the power is all going equally to both wheels. At the same time, you want to be able to turn your car, so your diff needs slippage as well.


My question for you is what do you expect out of your car? The ball diff is rather pricey, and unless you have a lot of money to spend, I'd invest in oil shocks and a few spring sets to experiment with. I use heavy grease to make my diff not-so-open, and locked the back of mine with a piece of paper put inside the diff.