03-04 Differential Girdle Cover
- Thread starter TVSCobra
- Start date
Hey Michelle....put me down for one for the IRS. Also, I am assuming that the IRS cover will have the same carrier bearing preload bolts that the SRA has......correct?
Have money...will spend :banana:
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LPW has them for the Cobra now, they are I believe $289.00... I'll check tonight.
Yes, it will have the same bolts. Call me 919-550-0700 and I will get you down for a pre-order.
Michelle
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I found that during a search as well. Anyone have any info on it. I need to get my diff resealed so this would kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Not much more than the billetflow brace either.
LPW must have just updated the website I ordered mine tonight. Sorry Fore, even the LPW isn't billet but the cast piece from LPW will do just fine. Plus the billet piece is to be around 450.00 bucks and at my power level, what the car is used for the LPW product will suit my needs just fine. Check out the LPW website the part number is 201-8.8IRS 219.99!!!
SWEET!!!!!!
SWEET!!!!!!
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I am now on the list at Fore Precision Works to get one of their billet IRS covers when completed. Michelle said it would be about another month.
I guess I will be the guinea pig. If it looks and works as well as the SRA diff cover it should be an awesome piece.
I guess I will be the guinea pig. If it looks and works as well as the SRA diff cover it should be an awesome piece.
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I can't figure out how they can make any money manufacturing it. The billet alone has to be $300+
Oh, and I'll keep my nice steel brace rather than a flimsy cast aluminum cover. The torsional rigidity of the case is more important than the preload on the diff caps...but hey thats just my opinion...
Oh, and I'll keep my nice steel brace rather than a flimsy cast aluminum cover. The torsional rigidity of the case is more important than the preload on the diff caps...but hey thats just my opinion...
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Yes it will be more expensive to manufacture than just a steel brace, but you get what you pay for in most cases. I see what you may be thinking about CAST aluminum, but BILLET aluminum, if engineered and milled correctly, is NOT flimsy.
Also, about the preload on the carrier caps.....one of the things that causes the rear covers on these cars to break is the distortion of the case as you obviously understand from your comment and another thing is that the ring gear carrier under hard acceleration tries to literaly go out the back of the rear end due to the way the ring gear and pinion teeth are cut. They are called helical cut gears. They are not straight cut gears. As a matter of fact for this reason, hard core drag cars set their pinion deeper into the ring gear pattern than you would on a street car so that when they are under hard acceleration the ring and pinion are meshed right in the middle of the contact pattern where you have the most surface area and strength. When you put a load on the carrier caps (as this cover should do) you keep them from stretching and deforming. This coupled with the thicker, stronger billet girdle makes for a more rigid setup. The best of both worlds! :burnout:
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have you ever seen billetflow's full billet cover? a work of art! :rockon:
go billet or go home :rolling:
i gotta agree with shelbyguy, it sounds great that fore will be pricing them cheaply, but i can't really understand it either. unless it is from a different grade of aluminum?
That is gorgeous.
That BilletFlow piece is nice. Why haven't I seen that on their website? Did I miss it? Thanks for the info. GEEEZZZ......now I have to weigh the options. I can always count on you guys to pony up all the options and make it tough for a guy to decide. :read: :??: :read:
doug only made a small run of these things and they are all but gone :shrug:
also let's put it this way, if you want one one of those but need to ask the price, you might not be able to afford it lol
The material cost isn't that bad. Indeed, there is no way we could make that part with a conventional CNC machine at that price. However, most people would be surprised at what a 35 hp five axis bridge machine can do to a 70 lb block of aluminum. :beer:
:rockon: fore will yours have a built in drain plug? thx
Yes- It will have a drain plug.
I just don't see how this is true. The housings center section is not a huge point of flex or distortion in the Cobra's IRS design until it binds on its mounting points. The reason they break is due to the mounting technique and the multiplied torque that is applied to the mounting point due to the angle and direction of applied force under power. The case itself, if mounted differently in the rear, would be plenty strong and rigid for the purpose that it serves and the torque applied to it under power. Bushings that limit the binding are the first step to increase this anti-deflection strength. Followed by a stronger steel mounting brace that disperses the pressure over a broader surface (IE: BF IRS Brace).
#1 this whole statement is a contradiction. "Lateral movement" in this respect, is side to side movement. How could lateral pressure force the carrier to walk rearward?
#2 I've never even heard of a straight cut ring and pinion, so I don't think that's a debateable point.
While I agree that many drag vehicles employ a shallower pinion depth that would cause premature gear wear in a street vehicle, it has always been my understanding that it was due to drive-train slack and shocking under high power and high RPM launches. If you allow slack in the gear mesh, you magnify the shock to the contact points of the gears themselves increasing chances of breakage. Maybe that's what your saying and I'm misunderstanding you, but I certainly don't see the logic or physics in the idea that a shallower pinion depth (obviously if installed properly) would cause increased front to back bearing cap pressure.... In fact it has also always been my experience and understanding that shallower pinion depth would cause a lateral (side to side) increase in pressure on the carrier, rather than a horizontal increase. All this being said though, your still dealing referring to a solid rear axle and not an IRS which has some different factors acting to change some of these points.
Obviously these are all debatable comments and I don't intend them to be gospel, I just thought I'd add my own experiences and understanding. I do 100% agree that a billet cover would be MUCH stronger than the factory sintered aluminum cover, but I agree with SelbyGuy that its not going to be any better than the common Diff Brace that most of us already employ, at protecting the diff cover from lateral fracture (which is basically what happens when they break in the common way that they have). I would buy the cover if I could retain the BF brace, more for the better mating surface and likely less leaky properties of it, than for the gimmicky bearing cap loaders.
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PistolWhip....The word "Laterally" in the post above should have said "Literally" instead.....Dang fat fingers. Amazing how one mispelled word changed the whole meaning there. Sorry.
Also, sometimes its hard to type what your are trying to say and make folks understand. At least I have never been great at it. Bear with me here guys. I guess in a nutshell what I was trying to say is that because the gears are (and have to be as you said) helical cut, in very simple terms the ring gear and pinion try to separate from each other. Think of it this way...when a fan blade hits air which direction does the air go? And if Physics applies here the fan blade also has a force going the other direction. Thank God.....or airplanes wouldn't fly and I wouldn't have a job :-D Think of the ring and pinion the same way. The pinion TRIES to move forward as you accelerate and the ring gear (and diff) TRY to go out the back of the housing (obviously it can't because of the diff caps, but it definately pushes like crazy) and this is the benefit of the pre load bolts in the cover. Not only does the ring gear and diff TRY to go out the back, but it also moves away from the pinion toward the drivers side. This process tries to split the housing side to side and is a major reason for failed ring and pinion setups.....especially if they had too much backlash to start with.
Your observations about the mounting points on the IRS are correct and only add to the equation. My comments are as clear as mud I am sure, but chew on it for a bit. Obviously the descriptions above are magnified on high HP cars and not seen as much on lower HP street cars, but the principles still apply.
Also, sometimes its hard to type what your are trying to say and make folks understand. At least I have never been great at it. Bear with me here guys. I guess in a nutshell what I was trying to say is that because the gears are (and have to be as you said) helical cut, in very simple terms the ring gear and pinion try to separate from each other. Think of it this way...when a fan blade hits air which direction does the air go? And if Physics applies here the fan blade also has a force going the other direction. Thank God.....or airplanes wouldn't fly and I wouldn't have a job :-D Think of the ring and pinion the same way. The pinion TRIES to move forward as you accelerate and the ring gear (and diff) TRY to go out the back of the housing (obviously it can't because of the diff caps, but it definately pushes like crazy) and this is the benefit of the pre load bolts in the cover. Not only does the ring gear and diff TRY to go out the back, but it also moves away from the pinion toward the drivers side. This process tries to split the housing side to side and is a major reason for failed ring and pinion setups.....especially if they had too much backlash to start with.
Your observations about the mounting points on the IRS are correct and only add to the equation. My comments are as clear as mud I am sure, but chew on it for a bit. Obviously the descriptions above are magnified on high HP cars and not seen as much on lower HP street cars, but the principles still apply.
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