problems installing mfactory lsd

[shorestiva]

Went to bolt my ring gear onto the diff and the shoulders on the bolts dont fit in the ring gear.



Has anybody else had this problem? Should I just drill the holes bigger or take it to a machine shop and have them do it?

[deadly_sleeper]

you have to order the correct bolts from m-factory. or you might have to use a different ring gear. I had the same problem with the ring gear I bought from someone. I used the original stock one and didn't have a problem.

[shorestiva]

Are there different bolts available? Those are the bolts that came with it. Thats the ring gear I drilled off the stock diff too. Im wondering if the cable G series that came in the 323s had different sized rivets than the rest. They have a different final drive too.

[ftjandra]

I remember someone else having that same problem and I think he ended up getting another ring gear. If its just the shoulders of the bolts, I would be tempted to just resize them on a lathe...

--Ferdi

[deadly_sleeper]

Yeah, I'm the person that had the problem...

If those are indeed the correct bolts then you need to get a different ring gear.

Which spline did you get? 26 or 28?

[ftjandra]

Ah, I just found the thread of who I was thinking about. I was wrong and he was installing a Kaaz lsd and not Mfactory, but ran into the same problem.

--Ferdi

[therieldeal]

what year/kind of trans?

when we designed these things we had to make certain assumptions, partly based on what people had encountered, and partly based on what other manufacturers had done.

basically.... ive never seen a ring gear with the smaller holes, and no where had i ever read about one either (until that other thread linked above). also, if you had bought a Quaife or Kaaz it wouldnt have fit either. so please dont go too hard on Mfactory for it not fitting.

send steve from mfactory an email - they might be able to make you a new set of bolts. pm me for his email address. they would need a dead-nuts-on accurate measurement of the ID of your ring gear holes.

[shorestiva]

26 spline

It's a g series from a 88 323gt. I know its a problem on my end not mfactorys. Iirc this trans is the only one with a 3.85 final drive so I doubt I can get a different ring gear. I'll try to dig up a hole gauge so I can measure it.

[therieldeal]

98+ escort 2.0 sohc had a 3.85 as well. the gear is wider like the kia vs. BG protege difference, but it should still be narrow enough to fit on your pinion gear. i had one of these final drives but i just shipped it to someone yesterday morning. this might be an option if you can get one of these trannies cheap at a u-pull-it

[shorestiva]

Hmmm the nearest decent u pull is 2.5 hrs away so that'll be the backup plan.

[therieldeal]

try www.car-part.com, ive found pre-pulled transmissions as low as $100... the 98+ escort lx is pretty common

[shorestiva]

The bolts are approximately .036 too big. I decided to get the ring gear drilled out so I won't have to get new bolts if I decide to go with a newer trans. My cousin had off today so he took it all up to the napa machine shop. They told him they didn't have the right drill bits and told him too take it to another shop. The other shop said no problem it'll be done this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

[ftjandra]

Keep us updated on if the machine shop was able to enlarge the holes. The guy in the thread I linked too had no luck with getting a machine shop to do it - I think they tried cobalt bits and broke them.

Also, I think I have one of those 3.85 final drive gears that Jon mentioned somewhere.

--Ferdi

[shorestiva]

He went and picked it up today doesn't look like they had problems with it. Charged $60 to do it.

[shorestiva]

How tight do the bolts need to be in the holes? The holes are about .040 bigger than the bolts now.