[vet 180]

Looking into building a steel case front diff for my vitara. I will have a fair amount of power running through the driveline and a little scared the alloy case will crack.

I have read that the steel case diff sits 5mm closer to the passenger side (assuming RHD so 5mm closer to the engine?). My problem is that if the diff pumpkin does move 5mm closer to the engine I do not really have that 5mm there. The current allow diff is touching the engine so I will have to mod the engine mounts an lift a cm or so. I am not sure how it will sit after, but I am not sure it will take 5mm of sideways movement towards the engine. I will have to measure after I have moved the engine up, hopefully I have more room than I am thinking. but for now:

Is there a way to install the steel cased diff without moving it 5mm closer to the engine?

[Bruce]

As far as I can remember the diff moves 5mm to one side if using a vitara diff certre. Nothing to do with the housing. Not sure where you got your info from.

[vet 180]

Bruce wrote:

As far as I can remember the diff moves 5mm to one side if using a vitara diff certre. Nothing to do with the housing. Not sure where you got your info from.

Well I will use a 26spline vitara 3rd member. But as long as the housing doesn't move over or hit the engine I don't really care. so it's just the center of that moves? That's not really a big deal then.

[Bruce]

Correct. It (diff centre) moves approx 5mm to the drivers side because you are fitting a centre that does not have the air actuator. I am talking about the centre not the housing.

[vet 180]

Cool. Thanks for clarifying that. Makes my life easy

[banga]

would diff drop brackets help with clearance if you run into trouble?

[Mike_B]

Yeah I didn't notice any shift of the housing when I swapped from alloy to steel.If you do have problems tho, diff drop brackets as mentioned above might be the answer.

[vet 180]

Yes they would banger. I wasn't planning on suspension lift as I want to keep geometry same as stock for driveline durability, but I guess I could always do 1 inch suspension lift and 1 inch drop brackets it i run into trouble. Thanks for the sudgestion as it was a blank on my mind.