Welded Rear Differential?

[Midnightsky]

I should have posted this much sooner than last minute.......shame on me lol

So in a couple hours me and a friend are heading to Red Deer to view a vehicle my friend has a very keen interest in.  Its a RWD Nissan 180sx, my friend is a fiend for them.  This one claims to have a welded rear differential done in Japan by a previous owner.  What type of concerns should I have about a welded rear diff? Just the low speed noise? Or can it cause eventual damage to the engine and/or transmission? If said rear diff said goodbye 2 weeks after said friend purchased the car, can it be replaced with an aftermarket unit for under $5000? 

[nnywg]

welded = rear wheels locked together.  For drifting or drag racing.  It will suck the suck going around corners.  Guaranteed you'll be able to find a working diff for under $1000, maybe under $500. 

[E6Cueman]

I have run more than a couple cars with welded diffs.  They are terrible in parking lots (that includes autox), noticeable in corners and quite hard on tires.  I would never do it on a car I planned to drive with any regularity at all on the street...   Drifting OK.  Road course OK.  Snow and Ice OK. 

I believe a proper LSD is always better for performance, never mind cost... welding is free.  Replacing axles is not. 

I never broke any axles... but I always drove on skinny tires or ice.  Among friends, I've seen lots of breakage.

[Midnightsky]

well we have viewed the car and are going to arrange vex to get a full inspection on it before my friend pulls the trigger.  I told him to get a full quote on replacing the rear diff while he is there to ensure he understands what he is getting into.  I warned him the handling might feel different to what he is used to.  The car has a fairly advanced set of coilovers on it so Im sure with a good custom alignment things could be made a bit more manageable. 

[James@SpecR]

I have run more than a couple cars with welded diffs.  They are terrible in parking lots (that includes autox), noticeable in corners and quite hard on tires.  I would never do it on a car I planned to drive with any regularity at all on the street...   Drifting OK.  Road course OK.  Snow and Ice OK. 

I believe a proper LSD is always better for performance, never mind cost... welding is free.  Replacing axles is not. 

I never broke any axles... but I always drove on skinny tires or ice.  Among friends, I've seen lots of breakage.

235s were skinny?

I bought one of E6Cueman's previous cars that had a welded rear diff and daily drove it for 4 months and 10000km.  Yes it eats tires, yes you look like your car is borked during low speed slow turns, but to me I didn't really mind that much.  I had lots of fun with it when the snow flew.

Since then though, i've turned into a total old man.

[RedApe]

Just for 'general' interest...

In the 4x4/Rock Crawling world, welded diffs (Lincoln Lockers) are very common, likely more than any other auto sport...this would be my background.
The general practice is to weld "everything to everything" in the carrier for 100% lock, including side/spiders to the carrier itself (eek)

A gentleman from Vancouver Island (Sooke, BC actually) 'invented' a style of a welded diff known as "The Fozzy Locker", whereby the side gears are welded at 12-3-6-9 valley's, respectively.  This allows for almost a 1/4 rotation in a corner prior to lock up..and saves on tires a fair bit in comparison to the standard method. He (Fozzy) was meticulous in how the welding was done, with weld, grind and repeat until he was happy with penetration (I watched the process 4 times)
I ran this setup in my 8" Toyota rear diff for 13 years on a daily driver, with 36" tall Interco Swampers.
http://www.offroaders.com/tech/Lincoln-Lockers-Fozzy-Locker.htm


For the OP: having it removed is a good idea, as not trusting the work would be my main concern...including reassembly.

[Midnightsky]

I think Ive managed to convince my buddy to buy an OS Giken setup from vex.