Changing from live axle to IRS on a Fury

[aww999]

I've spotted a car which looks good, but it has an open live rear axle at the moment, whereas I really want an LSD and preferably an IRS setup.

I'm pretty good with a spanner, can weld etc, how much work would it be for me to swap over and can someone give me an idea of cost for the parts which would be required? Could make a good winter project

Thanks!

[Sam_68]

Speak to Fisher Sports Cars, but I suspect they'll tell you that it's more complex than its worth trying to modify a live axle chassis to an IRS, once the car has been built up.

You'd be better looking for a suitable IRS car, if you really can't live with the live axle, though the linkages on the Sylva/Fisher are one of the best there are for a live axle and the set-up works surprisingly well.

[alexcollins]

why do you want to change from live axle?
A lot of the club racers swear by live axle - and fitting an lsd is easy.
Seems like a lot of trouble for zero (if not negative!) gain.....

[antnicuk]

i love my live axle, just get an lsd.........

[aww999]

I'm sure I could live with an LSD swap into the live axle. Thinking about it, my mates old MkII escort with 4-link kit etc was a brilliant drive so it's probably not such a big deal. I'm assuming it's some sort of Ford running gear that's most common, so I guess a couple of hundred quid would cover parts for a swap?

[deviant]

antnicuk said:

i love my live axle, just get an lsd.........

OT...I flipping love your car! I have seen it around here a couple of times. I always wonder why people dont use rotors more often in these kind of cars, perfect choice IMO!

[jeffw]

The Fury will have a English Axle in it. The best thing to do would be to swap the diff for a Quaife ATB (Around £500 to do). All the other LSD from Fords are more expensive new/rare 2nd hand.

Live axle Furys (with drum rear brakes) are lighter than the equivalent IRS car apparently. Swapping from Live Axle to IRS would almost certainly involved a new chassis.

[Mr2Mike]

jeffw said:

The Fury will have a English Axle in it. The best thing to do would be to swap the diff for a Quaife ATB (Around £500 to do). All the other LSD from Fords are more expensive new/rare 2nd hand.

Matt at Procomp has mentioned that an ATB isn't the best choice for the Sylva cars with the leading/trailing arm rear suspension because the inside rear tyre is so lightly loaded (due to very high roll stiffness at the rear).

[jeffw]

I have run the ATB in my Phoenix for several trackdays without an issue now...I would assume that statement would be applicable to anything with a live axle as they all have high roll resistance.

Edited by jeffw on Tuesday 6th October 09:08

[RT Phil]

Mr2Mike said:

jeffw said:

The Fury will have a English Axle in it. The best thing to do would be to swap the diff for a Quaife ATB (Around £500 to do). All the other LSD from Fords are more expensive new/rare 2nd hand.

Matt at Procomp has mentioned that an ATB isn't the best choice for the Sylva cars with the leading/trailing arm rear suspension because the inside rear tyre is so lightly loaded (due to very high roll stiffness at the rear).

Thats interesting, a few of the boys in the club go sprinting and run ATBs rather than plated diffs, having tried both, what does Procomp recomend?

[Mr2Mike]

The only other realistic option is a proper plate LSD rather than a torque biasing diff e.g. Salisbury type. Then again he deals with competition cars, an ATB may be the best compromise for road use.

[antnicuk]

deviant said:

antnicuk said:

i love my live axle, just get an lsd.........

OT...I flipping love your car! I have seen it around here a couple of times. I always wonder why people dont use rotors more often in these kind of cars, perfect choice IMO!

Thanks, it works well

I use a stock (I think) atlas LSD from a 2.8 Capri and it works really well although I'm not a good enough driver to compare to others. For how much power I have it feels very controlable even beyond the limit. Although I'm not sure they do an LSD English. I went for an atlas as I wanted something wider and stronger.

I initially wanted to go for an IRS conversion but I'm glad I stuck with live

[ruaricoles]

The Fury I had until recently had a full Atlas axle with a plate-type LSD which worked brilliantly. Not sure which Fury the OP is looking at, but if it has the flared rear arches (standard on the Spyder body) then an Atlas axle will fit in fine if you want a beefier alternative to the more common Escort English axle. Although I'm sure there are plenty of LSD options for the English axle too.

Ruari

[rhinochopig]

When I researched the differences before buying my IRS westy, the consensus seemed to be the extra expense of IRS was only worth it if your use was predominately road, and LA if it was going to be a track car.

[Comadis]

this guy changed from live to irs...but as i remember he told me that he shipped the bare chassis to someone in UK to do the job....but i might be wrong.

best ask himself:

there is an email button under "impressum". the guy speaks also english...so maybe best email-ing him!!

http://www.fbieger.de/html/fury_0.html

Edited by Comadis on Friday 9th October 04:14

[aww999]

Well it will be 75% track and 25% road so the live axle should be fine. Also, any shortcomings in the final package will be 4% car and 96% driver so I'm not going to get too worried about it

[antnicuk]

aww999 said:

Also, any shortcomings in the final package will be 4% car and 96% driver so I'm not going to get too worried about it

thats exactly why i didnt bother changing

[Furyblade_Lee]

Tom Van De End changed his Fireblade Fury from Live to IRS. Apparently it was a massive job. I would not even consider that conversion having owned both types.