Is it just me or does looking at the photo of the point of failure and actually reading Nathan's description of what happened / how he mounted it, make it clear this had nothing to do with a need for extra triangulation, 'girders' or any modification to the diff cage at all!!! The thing snapped a diff IN HALF before having a chassis failure!!!
What actually happened in this case, if you fit a winged diff just by running a bolt through the crush tube directly the mounting point the load is completely suspended by the rubber bush with no limit in travel... Put a large turning force through it, one wing is pressed hard up against the chassis while the other is pulled down hard pulling / flexing the bush as far as the rubber part will stretch... This can only go so far before something goes crunch!
If you mount the diff with no caps on the bushes, even on the original MX5 subframe and and drive it hard will pull itself to pieces...
The fact it wripped a diff in half and didn't budge the diff cage plates proves Andrews design is sound... Just make sure you fit the thing correctly with no missing parts
|