Reynard Diff question... Warner, Demski?

[gtwiss]

I have damaged the diff in my car, and I need to replace the diff gear(s). Can I acquire the parts and affect the repair myself, or should I send it out? Anyone with experience with this diff, (Gleason/Torsen) please advise as to my best course of action. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Car is a 90-H Reynard.....ran it this weekend....was a blast!! I am a career machinist......this should not be a job beyond my abilities...as long as I have specs to work to. If specialized jigging is required, that is another story.

Best Regards,
Guil

[bill gillespie]

Call Dennis Eade at ComPrep...262-275-9806......he ran several of the 90h cars for some really fast guys.

Regards,
Bill

[Charles Warner]

You can get the parts and effect the repairs . . . if you have the appropriate set-up tools and jigs. IOW, send it off to Taylor. Dennis Eade and Mike Demski also have a long standing knowledge of these cars. Mike may actually have some CWPs which are not the run of the mill CWPs (of course.) I know he had some spares at one time.

While you are at it, if you send it to Taylor, have all the parts cryo treated and mag all the gears. You are stretching the limit for the Mark 5 gears with this application.

[rickb99]

.....this should not be a job beyond my abilities...as long as I have specs to work to. If specialized jigging is required, that is another story.Best Regards, Guil

Right, it's not a job you couldn't do based upon your background and abilities. There's another thread started buy a person who was ready to reassemble a totally striped down diff.

One of the Taylor people responded with a price for 'going through' a diff and setting it up (which involves complete tear down and inspection). The price really wasn't that bad. He also pointed out that the special tools and jigs to do the job correctly were about $1,200 (as I recall without looking). That figure wasn't much less then Taylor charges to go through it.

[demskiracing]

Guil,

I have anything you need for the gleason diff. You do not want to do it yourself however.

I do not have any CWP for your car. The stock I purchased from Reynard North America was sold.

Not sure what Charlie is saying.

Mike

[Charles Warner]

Not sure what Charlie is saying.

Mike

Charlie is saying that you would be a possible source for the CWPs if anyone would. I seem to remember you had a couple at one time.

[demskiracing]

Charlie,

I was refering to "which are not run of the mill CWP ( of coarse )".

The only CWPs we ever had came directly from Reynard North America / Hewland.

Mike

[Charles Warner]

Meaning they are not standard Mark 9 but unique to the Reynard.

[demskiracing]

Charlie,

They are unique for sure.

Are you holding any inventory for the Reynard,DB-4 or RT-41?

Mike

[Charles Warner]

Are you holding any inventory for the Reynard,DB-4 or RT-41?

Hi Mike,

Nope. I sold all the RT-4/5 stuff to Bruce Domeck, then bought all the RT-40/41 stuff from the factory. Then sold it all to Mike Mitchell in Texas many moons ago. Have now gone backwards and am collecting early RT-4s. Have two 1982 models and also the second one built (earliest one still in one piece) that was driven by Brabham at Long Beach in 1980. All the Reynard stuff went to you when I sold the two 89/90h cars. . . although I do have one mag case for the 89/90h.

Hope all is well.

Cheers,

[gtwiss]

I have broken the side gears and spiders in the diff again, and am thinking this could be a clutch issue. I am going to take it all apart again and examine the clutch to determine if this is the culprit here. While I am new to the car, that it has broken those gears again is a mystery.

If anyone has had this happen with a Hewland Salisbury type diff, or can offer suggestions as to the cause please let me know.

I rebuilt it once to the specs, and this was the second occurence. I broke the gears trying to start the car from a standstill in first gear.

Regards,
Guil

[Charles Warner]

Guil,

In all the years I had the 89/90 cars I never had trouble with the dif or internals. However, if you are still running the mag case this is probably your problem. The pros used to run through a CWP every race as the original mag case is not stiff enough to withstand serious use due to the effect of the rear shock mounts that tried to pull the case apart and screwed up all the internal clearances. Ergo, alloy cases were made. If you have an alloy case then I'd check with Dennis Eade or Craig Taylor. If not, search for an alloy case.

[gtwiss]

The case I have is aluminum, and I am thinking the issue could be clutch related If the clutch plates are warped or out of spec. This could apparently create an issue on engagement. I am also considering that my ramps whicht are 45's are too aggressive,and should be adjusted for a lesser angle on acceleration and even lesser so on decel. Any opinion on this?
Guil

[Charles Warner]

Dif internals are a black art to me. I'd call Craig Taylor. Obviously, check the clutch plates for warpage. I would think you'd feel that though. What clutch are you using? I used the standard Tilton/AP style 7" - non-carbon - and it was quite easy to drive around the pits. I never tried standing starts.

[R. Pare]

For anyone who has a Gleason-type diff in an Atlantic, I made them - probably 24 for Ralts(Staffs box), and 3 (I think, maybe only 2) for the Reynards. Outside of the leftover gearsets that I have left here, Demski is the only other person in the world who has repair parts.

You DO NOT want to attempt to repair these units yourself!

Gear breakage in a Salisbury type diff would be highly unlikely to be caused by ramp angles or clutch problems (for the most part, any way). Usually, gear breakage, especially the axle gears, would be aggravated by not prepping the gears correctly ( proper corner radiusing and shotpeening), or by running the gears too long. Spyder gears will always have a shorter life than the axle gears, especially when used with lighter-locking (higher numerical) ramp angles - more of the torque goes through the gear teeth than the clutches.

If the clutches are badly warped to where there is exceedingly little contact area, then yes, that can help overload the spyders.

The other issue is proper stack length set up - ie - the overall length of the stack of clutches, ramps, and gears has to closely match the length of the inside of the diff. If there is too much slop, the axle gears will come out of proper engagement depth with the spyder gears, and overload the teeth (never mind the harsh locking action that slop an induce).

[Randy Cook]

I don't know if this is relevant experience but I broke spider gears in my FT200 Hewland Powerflow. There was a bad batch of gears from Hewland and replacements were made later that had an "A" suffix to the p/n. (This is now years ago, I hope I remember it right. Taylor people know the whole story) I don't know if this is applicable to the question at hand but the new gears are working just fine.
Good luck.