1990 NA, what diff came standard?

[St. Anger]

My diff went bang (quite dramatically!) on Friday evening and I'm in the process of buying a replacement. Was mines a LSD or an Open number?

My understanding is that if it's an open diff that's on it at the moment, if I try and replace it with an LSD I will also need a new propshaft?

I think I would like an LSD, but currently don't have the money to be replacing more than nessecary!

Cheers,
Nikos.

[denniswise9]

Viscous LSD....replace with a torsen LSD if you can.

Viscous LSD uses fluid to lock up which will generally lose its effectiveness after a few years hence it is likened to an open diff.

[St. Anger]

Pardon my ignorance, but I know very very little about differentials other than they help to turn the wheels at different speeds....

How much of a difference is there in the real world between an LSD and an Open diff? TorSen is unfortunately out of the equation due to it almost costing the same as I payed for the car!

[snotrag]

Not enough to warrant you worrying about it to be honest. A 1.6 open diff will be the cheapest available so you may aswell just get that, you'd get more of a benefit spending the difference in cost elsewhere to be honest (good quality tyres if you don't already have them)

[St. Anger]

Managed to get a VLSD including halfshafts and hubs from ebay for the same price as an Open one from Autolink. Should be here on Thursday, I inteded on taking it to a garage to replace, but they're starting to worry me by moaning about siezed bolts and stuff - don't think I'm confident they'll tell the truth when I'm coughing up for labour charges!

How difficult is it to do on the driveway?