cmar-ireland

I recently got a 4 way diff for my marder. And insted of using diff risers or silicone., i thought about a chassis notch to allow clearance. What are the pro's and con's of this? Anyone got any pics?

To prevent stone damage to the unraised diff I would like to make a custom cover for the entire diff, gear layshaft area...... Opinions???

Cheers
Ciaran

StefanL

Sure you can mill out the chassis for clearance, it just gets a little weak. There are ways of supporting it though.

Here is a solution by a local hobby shop here in Sweden, called Luthagens:




Gives a lot of clearance and a strong rear end. I think they want 53 euros for it (550 swedish kronor). They have a homepage but it only has a swedish telephone number so...

Covering the entire diff would be great, but that would make it necessary to fabricate a completely closed box, with some sort of sealed bearing where the layshaft enters the box. There is not much room between the layshaft gear and the engine casing, so that would be a problem... I think you would have to seal it to the engine casing, and also make the engine mounts a part of the "box". The advantage would be that the entire rear end with engine etc could be removed as a single piece.

If you only want to protect the diff, the cheap way is to make some diff risers yourself from an old cutting board. Adjust the gear mesh carefully. More costly is alu diff risers, or Luthagens alternative.

The "closed box" idea is great, but a big project that basically results in a completely new rear end, with an integrated gear plate and engine mounts in aluminium. Would rock though.

kinggeordie

diff risers probably the best option

SELWA

My Feedback: (1)

When I tried the risers on my marder I found the front right ball end hitting the engine mount so I couldn't move the gear close enough. What I did which also make the rear end stronger is used 2 pcs of Aluminum. 1/2" X 5" OR 6" LONG and maybe 1/4 thick or more. Place each of these along the path of the engine and diff and trace out the holes for mounting. Drill the holes and now you have a spacer which lifts up the whole rear end making it stronger and depending on the thickness you choose your gearwheel will clear the chassis. You will need to get 8 more screws/bolt to compensate for this. This lets you cover the hole in the chassis. I've had this for over 1 1/2 yrs and no problems with anything as well as no marks on the diff tube at all!!! Cost of aluminum, maybe $10 and used less than half of it.

The only downside is that the body iwll be a bit tighter.

cmar-ireland

This looks like a really neat solution. I might try to follow up with the website.

What about the standard gear protector that bolts to the chassis bottom. What if I fitted another one to where the chassis was milled. That would strenghten it up, especially if I used the alloy version.



[quote]ORIGINAL: StefanL

Sure you can mill out the chassis for clearance, it just gets a little weak. There are ways of supporting it though.

Here is a solution by a local hobby shop here in Sweden, called Luthagens:




Gives a lot of clearance and a strong rear end. I think they want 53 euros for it (550 swedish kronor). They have a homepage but it only has a swedish telephone number so...

StefanL

Luthagens´website doesn´t say much. Only a phone number, it is +46 18 506 390.

Give them a call, I am sure you can order one from them without problem.

Stefan

Mouton

There is a [link=http://rsb.se/galleri/albums/userpics/10003/066LH10_Manual.pdf]Acrobat manual for the diff protection plate[/link]available. It includes photos so you can see what it is and how it goes where.



http:www.luthagens-rc.com - all in Swedish but they take Visa and will answer in English to e-mails ([email protected])

I have that on my FG with a 8485 adjustable diff and it's excellent protection and strenghtens the rear end of the chassis!