Also, if you have to pull the carrier out of the housing, use "The Rag" trick. Maybe this is common knowledge, but I watched youTube vids of guys pulling them out with trucks, forklifts, you name it. After you remove the two brackets on either side and the 4 bolts holding them in, just jam a rolled up rag under the largest gear and turn it under by turning the gear with a crowbar or long screw driver. After that, just use the same long handled tool to start levering it out from either side a little at a time. It will just fall out into your oil drain (or lap)! Look for it on youTube if you need a visual and then watch the kids that pull it out with a pickup.
Rear diff gurus, what is this?
- Thread starter laserjock
- Start date
LCAM-01XA
Full Access Member
Oh I know you know what they look like
And here's a pic that may make it easier for others to understand *** we're talking about - the top plate with smooth walls is the Belleville washer, notice the slight gap between its inner edge and the edge of the disc below it (the one with the teeth), this gap is caused by the dish of the Belleville washer and is closed up as the side gears are installed in the carrier and the Belleville washer is compressed and flattened:
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As for making the diff more aggressive, no unfortunately I do not know any tricks from personal experience. I know on a Power-Lock you can add more Belleville washers (they can run 2 per side) and rearrange tabbed plates and toothed discs around. That could work with the Sterling too I think. From the factory we have 11 active friction surfaces:
plate-(1)-disc-(2)-plate-(3)-disc-(4)-plate-(5)-disc-(6)-plate-(7)-disc-(8)-plate-(9)-disc-(10)-Belleville-(11)-gear
The Belleville washer is indexed to carrier so we have friction surface on both its sides, altho the one between the washer and the side gear it's not very grippy cause both components have smooth walls. Since the tabbed plate that rides against the carrier is also indexed to it there is no active friction surface between the plate and the carrier - removing that tabbed plate frees up space for a 2nd Belleville washer in the stack, this one must go right on top of the factory one for nearly double the clamping load (and thus more holding power from the diff). We end up with again 11 active friction surfaces in the following arrangement:
carrier-(1)-disc-(2)-plate-(3)-disc-(4)-plate-(5)-disc-(6)-plate-(7)-disc-(8)-plate-(9)-disc-(10)-Belleville/Belleville-(11)-gear
With same number of friction surfaces and double the clamp load if she still doesn't hold enough then it's time for a full locker. One major downside to this setup tho is that now we have a toothed disc riding against the carrier face, and said disc rotates with the side gear, thus making the face of the carrier an active friction surface and subjecting it to wear. Another downside is that with double the holding power of the diff comes double the torque required to turn the side gears, and side gears MUST be turned in order to install the spurrs riding on the cross shaft - turning side gears is a bear with the factory setup, I can only imagine how much fun it will be after the restacking...
Don't use WD40 as a preservative, it will evaporate, after cleaning, oil it up good with some gear oil for storage.
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