Is this normal with a ford LSD?

[carefull]

Hi guys,

I have just got a Caterham back on the road and the diff is a little clonky. It's a sierra LSD and with the rear wheels off the ground I can turn one wheel a few degrees before it turns the other so its like the teeth are not interlocked all the way. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance

Jason

[tribbles]

You're always going to get a bit of play like that - but it depends on what "few degrees" means. 20 is probably far too much for normal; I think I had about 5 on mine (Quaife LSD, but English axle rather than Sierra).

[carefull]

Thanks for the rappid response! I would sat 5 deg sounds about the same as mine. While talking diff, are you supposed to be able to hear the plates creaking slightly on a tight turn at low speed ( getting on the drive)?

Jason

[Snake the Sniper]

Err, what plates? The sierra LSD is a viscous coupling. You'll always have a few degrees play due to the way the teeth mesh.

[carefull]

Oh, I thought they had plates in there.. so is it normal for the viscose coupling to creak on a tight, slow turn?

jason

Edited by carefull on Monday 23 July 22:19

[Snake the Sniper]

It shouldn't creak at all, there's not really anything to creak. It may well be the steering, a bit of chassis flex or something else altogether. It only takes a tiny amount of twist on my 7 type for the fibre glass panels to make a bit of noise. It's difficult to say without being there though.

[tribbles]

Mine squeaked a bit with the suspension - the rubber bushes (which were fairly high duty) needed a bit more copper grease on the bolts running through them (but I sold it anyway).

[Snake the Sniper]

Good point that. It could quite easily be a bush or two squeaking. They work a bit better with a fresh load of copper slip every now and then.