Austarion

I am curious whether anybody has attempted (successfully or not) to fit a commodore or falcon LSD from one of their independant rear end setups into a starion JA. I realise it will involve matching driveshafts and tailshafts to the diff, and some work to attach the housing to the rear sub-assembly (torque tube on staz, bolts on holden/ford).
I can get some help with any welding/fabrication required but I thought I'd just see if anybody had tried something similar and either succeded or found a major traffic stopper (drive shaft spinning wrong way, etc...).

Just an idea I'm toying with..

i only wish i could get LSD on my JB.. they are just too rare to come by.. i have heard but dont know if it'll work, that you can do some welding to get the LSD effect.. is this possible?

Yes, you 'Can' weld the insides of the diff to get a locked diff. Perhaps ok for drag racing and maybe for track racing with the right suspension setup, but not the sort of thing you want on the road if you want to be able to turn without tyre squeal and be able to drive safely in the wet. The diff will possibly be weaker too, depending on where and how it's welded so it's not a really good option. That said, I have never tried it so I'm not an authority on the matter.

as Jakobsladderz said, you can just weld up the diff, but that means that both wheels will spin the same speed all the time. When you're cornering, the outside wheel needs to rotate more than the inside wheel, and that's what a diff is supposed to let happen. If it's welded, then the inside wheel will slip on a corner, which is good for drifting, but is dangerous and illegal for road use. It can also snap axles, and put strain on your drivetrain.

You're much better off with either an open-diff or an lsd.

As for the falcon or commo diff, do they come in good ratio's?

Apart from the obvious differences in track width, mounting points, different hub arrangements, wheel studs, brakes you'd have to think about spring and shocker locations, tailshaft modifications, redoing brake lines etc. Just off the top of my head.

If you were going to go to the trouble and expense you'd probably want to fabricate up a nice independent wishbone setup to fit under there. Height adjustable coilovers, adjustable camber and castor etc.

Or import a LSD from the US, it will cost less than $1000

May be cheaper to order one from NZ if you can actually find one.

I was offered a JA Starion NZ new with LSD,ABS,leather but with p/steer leaking and bad turbo seals for $1000NZ. Have seen the LSD go for $300 in the past, not sure what postage etc is

Also do you need the whole diff, or just the internals? If its just the internals, could save a lot on postage.

just diff centre I believe, and SW, if u see an LSD going at that price again buy it and tell me, I'll ship it here and buy u a carton of lion red for your troubles ;)

Alspos,
The commodore diff that is being reffered to is the IRS one I am assuming.

In that case there would be no change in track, hubs, brake and so on. The diff would only need to be mounted correctly and mated to the half shafts and prop shaft.
I was actually looking underneath a VX wagon a few weeks back and spotted the potential.
The other option would be the R200 diff from a 300zx.

The question was originally the whole IRS setup, hence my reply.
I think similar things could be said about inserting just the diff. Half shafts would need to be custom made to suit, new mounts would need to be fabricated to locate the diff in the correct spot, a new tailshaft would need to be made as I am pretty sure they don't have torque tubes.
That said it would probably not be impossible, but I think the time, $ and effort could be better spent increasing performance elsewhere. Diffs are available in the US, they bolt straight in and so far I haven't had a problem with mine.

You could even put an LSD from a front wheel drive car in the back of a starion.... if you've got enough money.

Starion LSDs turn up for sale on this forum every couple of months, they usually want between $600 and $1000. They are a strait bolt-in and they are as tough as nails. Just bite the bullet and buy one when it comes up for sale.

Interestingly, I just pulled the LSD out of my yellow starion so I could sell the car. Driving it around without an LSD was terrible, I couldn't take off anywhere near as hard and booting it around a roundabout would leave a very long, very black, single tyre mark all the way around.

I was originally meaning only the diff, not the whole subframe.. I do agree that a starion LSD would be the easiest way to go and I'll probably just keep my eyes open for one. I was just interested to know if anybody had done any other conversions.

dirty sanchez wrote:You could even put an LSD from a front wheel drive car in the back of a starion.... if you've got enough money.

Starion LSDs turn up for sale on this forum every couple of months, they usually want between $600 and $1000. They are a strait bolt-in and they are as tough as nails. Just bite the bullet and buy one when it comes up for sale.

Interestingly, I just pulled the LSD out of my yellow starion so I could sell the car. Driving it around without an LSD was terrible, I couldn't take off anywhere near as hard and booting it around a roundabout would leave a very long, very black, single tyre mark all the way around.

Try turning in to traffic on slick wet tar from a stand still

Its an ass.

Commodores have 3.08 and 3.45 LSD's from factory. You can also use pintara LSD's in the commodore housing not sure whether it is the R31 or U12 model. I think these are 4.11. The commodore LSD's are weak as piss, the clutches wear out pretty damn quickly so they don't last long between rebuilds, thats why so many guys run CIG diffs (welded), lockers mini or full spools in there commos.

well, just to throw another opinion in, I had a chat to my local Diff guru, and he does know alot, he reckons you can get away with obtaining an IRS diff from a Falc, and essentially cut the centre out of the starion and weld up the Falcon diff. He has had to do something similar with an old 1970 merc that had a 350 Chev put in it. The Merc had an IRS rear end and the diff disentegrated within a week. They got a diff from a BA XR and cut the centre out welded it up to the Merc sides and as a result they didn't need to change half shafts or anyhting. Just had to adjust a couple of mounts....

isnt mazda bravo or ford couriour fit. i heard this a while ago but it might have been that little guy in my head.