RE: 80 Trans. failure update...DOA

[Eaton Dave <dave.eaton@minedu.govt.nz>]

i'd blame the guy with the big hammer....

the trust washers are the most important part of the operation of the torsen
because they determine the friction resistance to turning and therefore the
torque bias.  they are *very* carefully machined and made out of interesting
materials to ensure correct operation.  the guy breaking the housing won't
have harmed things too much as the carrier (rather than the housing) is the
critical piece of the setup.  however, there is nothing to say that a
fragment of metal didn't come loose and get involved as a 3rd party in the
relationship between the side gears and the trust washers.

btw, you don't say what year 80 you've got.  i can't remember what changes
were made to the torsen over the life of the 80.  late model torsens used a
different setup for the trust washers, which then work in quite a different
way.  later model torsens again use a fundamentally different spider gear
setup and the trust washers aren't all that important.

hth,
dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q

	-----Original Message-----

	Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 10:52:34 -0800
	From: dclose@tcadvertising.com
	Subject: 80 Trans. failure update...DOA

	Hey all,

	Pulled my gearbox Sun. There's a hole the size of a quarter in my
Torsen
	cover. Something blew out the side and let all the oil out with it.
I took
	it back to the gearshop, took it apart, and a thrust washer inside
the
	Torsen broke in half, worked past the worm gears, got lodged in the
Torsen
	and while it spun around, it machined a groove in the housing and
finally
	blew out. It looks like a BBQ pit inside the rest of the box.

	What could cause a Torsen thrust washer to fail? Could it be related
to the
	trans repair guy beating on the Torsen case so hard that he broke
the
	housing and had to have it welded?

	The shop owner is hinting that he isn't responsible (of course). Is
there
	ANYTHING that I could have done while installing it to cause such a
	failure? The driveshaft CV that bolts to the trans isn't very smooth
I just
	noticed. Could this have caused it? I don't want to take him to
court if it
	wasn't his fault. Also, any leads on a good gearbox? (88 80 Q). TIA
	____
	Dave