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Date:         Sat, 2 Oct 1999 21:56:26 -0700
Reply-To:     Todd Last <Rubatoguy@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Todd Last <Rubatoguy@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      Would you be interested in a limited-slip diff for your Vanagon?
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;

Hello to the list!

Having a 2WD and wanting it to have some off-road and foul-weather abilities, I've been trying to find a limited-slip differential for the Vanagon.

I initially looked at locking differentials, and based on comments from folks on the list, a locker has more drawbacks than benefits. Supposedly, ZF makes a limited slip that works in the Vanagon transmission, but I have not been able to find anyone who can confirm this. What I did come across, after talking to a friend who works for a VW magazine was something called a "Torque Biasing differential." Apparently this is the hot thing among Water-cooled FWD VWs. There is one manufacturer for this product.

From their web page: http://quaife.co.uk/product/atb.htm

"The QUAIFE Differential powers both drive wheels under nearly all conditions, instead of just one.

With an ordinary open differential, standard on most cars, a lot of precious power is wasted during wheel spin under acceleration. This happens because the open differential shifts power to the wheel with less grip, along the path of least resistance.

The QUAIFE, however, does just the opposite. It senses which wheel has better grip, and biases the power to that wheel. It does this smoothly and constantly, and without ever completely removing power from the other wheel.

In drag-race style, straight-line acceleration runs, this results in a close to ideal 50/50 power split to both drive wheels, resulting in essentially twice the grip of an ordinary differential.

In cornering, while accelerating out of a turn, the QUAIFE biases greater power to the outside wheel, reducing inside-wheel spin. This allows the driver to begin accelerating earlier, exiting the corner at a higher speed.

The QUAIFE also controls loss of traction when the drive wheels are on slippery surfaces such as ice and snow or mud, providing the appropriate biased traction needed to overcome these adverse conditions. The QUAIFE Differential provides constant and infinitely variable drive. Power is transferred automatically without the use of normal friction pads or plates seen in other limited-slip designs. "

Well, the bad news in all this is that while they make units for: VW Beetle 1302/1303 , VW Beetle swing axle,VW Golf/Scirocco/Jetta/Passat - with 020 transmission, VW Golf/Corrado/Jetta/Vento/New Beetle/Audi A3 & A4/Seat Ibiza/Skoda Octavia - with 02A or 02J transmission , they do not make one for the Vanagon.

The good news is that they are willing to make one, if there is enough interest. I'm posting the email I got from the US distributor, in hopes that someone might be interested in organizing a group purchase, or perhaps one of our vendors would be interested in arranging something with them.

Is anyone interested in taking this and running with it? From what I can tell, this could be used in both 2wd and 4wd Vanagons. They wy=ould need 25 orders to tool up for the Vanagon.

Regards,

Todd '88 Westy

====================== Forwarded email =========================== Mr Last, Thank you for your interest in Quaife. Your inquiry with Quaife UK was forwarded to us since we distribute their products here. Although we do not currently make a diff for the Vanagon, it could be made if enough people were interested in doing it. Depending on its size, the price could range from $800 to $1300 each. We have done many productions of diffs for car clubs lately with special pricing for all who pre-order the diff, once the diff has been designed and quoted. After the initial group gets their diffs at the special price, the diff would then be available for sale through us at our standard price (whateverthat may be).

The other option is for you (your club) to organize a buy of the entire production run of 25 units as a single purchase. This would essentially mean that the diff is yours to sell exclusively, as long as it is re-ordered on a regular basis (once every year or so). If you would like to pursue any of these options, please contact me at 800.553.1055 to discuss it further. We would need a sample complete diff (with spiders, etc) and at least one output flange (CV joint flange) to start the quote process. Our address is below. Again, thank you for your interest. Regards, Dana _____________________________ Dana C. Clark AUTOTECH Sport Tuning 32240-E Paseo Adelanto San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 USA tel 949.240.4000 fax 949.240.0450 dclark@autotech.com


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