[Mugwui]

So I am looking at putting ARB diff locks in the GV and I have been told I need to put Vitara diff centres in to make room for the lockers.
Question:
A: What Vitara diff centres do I need? eg, LWB or SWB, ratio, model etc
B: Can I do one at a time or do I have to do them both together due to the different diff centres?
C: What kind of price should I be paying for diff centres?
D: Does anyone have a front and rear from the same vitara that needs a new home?

[royce]

You only need the rear gears out of a vitara but whole centre can be easier, the front is fine as it is

where people start throwing around needing a set is if you dont already have 5.12 gears and wish to change to them, or you cant match your front gears with a rear vit one

what year is yours? do you already have a steel front diff?

[Mugwui]

Mine is a 1999 and it has the steel font diff, but I dont know anything about either the front or the rear, as in I dont know what the ratios are!
Whats the best way to find out?

[joeblow]

royce wrote:

You only need the rear gears out of a vitara but whole centre can be easier, the front is fine as it is

where people start throwing around needing a set is if you dont already have 5.12 gears and wish to change to them, or you cant match your front gears with a rear vit one

what year is yours? do you already have a steel front diff?

you need both centres. gv's are not 5.12's. they can be 4.3 (v6 i think) and 4.8 (2.o litre 4)

[Mugwui]

thanks mate, mine is the V6, so does that mean I need front and rear 5.12 diff centres?
Is there a particular model Vit that they come out of?
Is there a differance between the LWB & SWB?

[tOngEh]

Hi,
I own a 2.0 4 cyl GV with 4.88 ratio. To put in ARB lockers, particularly RD79 for 93 - 98 Vitara, u need a diff centre from vitara. If the rear diff is out fromt a 88-93 vitara, RD74 is the model u need.

I swapped my front to a samurai axle. So i cant really chip much. The next impt point is that the vitara front RnP cant fit into the stock GV diff. Therefore, the last resort is to change ur front diff to a vitara one. Im not sure if thats possible.
Gd luck!

[royce]

joeblow wrote:

royce wrote:

You only need the rear gears out of a vitara but whole centre can be easier, the front is fine as it is

where people start throwing around needing a set is if you dont already have 5.12 gears and wish to change to them, or you cant match your front gears with a rear vit one

what year is yours? do you already have a steel front diff?

you need both centres. gv's are not 5.12's. they can be 4.3 (v6 i think) and 4.8 (2.o litre 4)

Yeah so if you dont want 5.12 you dont need both diffs

[steak_knife]

So lockers only fit in 5.12 diffs??

and thay are out of 4cyl vit`s?


Looking at doin the same thing next year.

[Mugwui]

Can someone explain 5.12, what will this do?, speed me up or slow me down? so I can obvoiusly have diferent ratios front and rear, if I do that what will happen.
If you cant tell, I know nothing about diffs and gearing, but I want to learn.

[tOngEh]

5.12 are the Ring and Pinion ratio. It means for every 5 rounds the longshaft turns, your wheel turns 1 round. Higher values are better for crawling, in case of manual transmission, your engine would not die off that easily as compared to a 4.30 ratio.(imagine for every 1 round your longshaft turns, your wheel turns 1 round, hows hectic would that be! parts break like nobody's business)

For high speed cruising, you would prefer lower ratio.

[Mugwui]

so What other ratios are available if I have 4.3 and the locker doesn't fit, will it fit with a 4.8?
Is there a 5.0 and if so, will the locker fit with that diff centre in the GV?
or as this car is not my daily drive, and I only drive it on the black top to get it to the dirt, am I best off with 5.12?

[joeblow]

4.6 and 5.1

[royce]

what size tyres do you have? 5.12 is useful with bigger tyres as it brings the revs back up a bit for a given speed

there is 4.88 as well, Jap import wreckers are a good place to find them all

[atari4x4]

i'm running 5.12 & 31's in my j20a vitara & the gearing is back to standard.

it did have 4.6's & the speedo was out by 10-11% now it's under by 1-2%

apart from the air locker, calmini suspension & all the other shit it's got to be one of the better mods i've done. it is so much more drivable on & off road... + it was reasonably cheap, I scored a rear diff for $60 & a complete front diff for free & it all bolted straight up.

[Mugwui]

royce wrote:

what size tyres do you have? 5.12 is useful with bigger tyres as it brings the revs back up a bit for a given speed

there is 4.88 as well, Jap import wreckers are a good place to find them all

I'm running 31 x 11 1/2 so it sounds like I need 5.12 Front & Rear as it its a bit sluggish on the hill and the speedo is out by 10+%. Thank God for GPS.

[atari4x4]

if you are going to the trouble of putting a locker in, you might as well chase up the 5.12's you will not regret it.

[steak_knife]

atari4x4 wrote:

if you are going to the trouble of putting a locker in, you might as well chase up the 5.12's you will not regret it.

How many do you have in your garage????

[atari4x4]

steknig wrote:

atari4x4 wrote:

if you are going to the trouble of putting a locker in, you might as well chase up the 5.12's you will not regret it.

How many do you have in your garage????

well, it sort of goes like this: 2x 4.6 fronts, 1x 4.6 rear & 1x 5.12 front.

as i said, i only need a 5.12 rear & my collection is complete

[steak_knife]

atari4x4 wrote:

steknig wrote:

atari4x4 wrote:

if you are going to the trouble of putting a locker in, you might as well chase up the 5.12's you will not regret it.

How many do you have in your garage????

well, it sort of goes like this: 2x 4.6 fronts, 1x 4.6 rear & 1x 5.12 front.

as i said, i only need a 5.12 rear & my collection is complete

Then what? Tea towel`s?
How often do you change ratio`s?

[atari4x4]

then it's back to collecting genuine suzuki valve caps, i need one from the right hand rear?

[steak_knife]

I Got a few of them, not lettin them go tho!!

Got a glass cabnet mad up & everything, who needs porn when u got valve caps!!!!!!

[atari4x4]

photos?

[steak_knife]

Not on ya life mate !! I get upset when thay flirt with other makes of valve caps, don`t want cross breeding in my house thank you very much!!

[Mugwui]

Ok, So now I have myself both a front and rear 5.12 diff, housing's, axel's and all.
Should I be putting just the Vitara diff centres into my GV or should I be putting the whole diff housing and axels in.
Keep in mind that I have the steel front diff in my GV.

[steak_knife]

Mugwui wrote:

Ok, So now I have myself both a front and rear 5.12 diff, housing's, axel's and all.
Should I be putting just the Vitara diff centres into my GV or should I be putting the whole diff housing and axels in.
Keep in mind that I have the steel front diff in my GV.

Gv`s have the steel anyway, never seen an alloy in a Gv.
You use the ring & pinion from the 5.12 & bolt it to your center, unless you have the locker`s & are ready to install them to.
Then the side gears (the one`s the axle slide into) out of the Gv center & the ring & pinion out of the 5.12 are used.
If your only doing ratio change, use the Gv side`s in the 5.12 center to get rid of your VACC (sucky) operated front diff....

Dose that help?

[joeblow]

steknig wrote:

Mugwui wrote:

Ok, So now I have myself both a front and rear 5.12 diff, housing's, axel's and all.
Should I be putting just the Vitara diff centres into my GV or should I be putting the whole diff housing and axels in.
Keep in mind that I have the steel front diff in my GV.

Gv`s have the steel anyway, never seen an alloy in a Gv.
You use the ring & pinion from the 5.12 & bolt it to your center, unless you have the locker`s & are ready to install them to.
Then the side gears (the one`s the axle slide into) out of the Gv center & the ring & pinion out of the 5.12 are used.
If your only doing ratio change, use the Gv side`s in the 5.12 center to get rid of your VACC (sucky) operated front diff....

Dose that help?

nope, gv's have alloy also.

early rear diff bolt straight in, don't worry about swapping centres over unless you have a locker.

for the front you can use a 26 spline vit front centre to get rid of the vac lock, or a sierra 26 spline rear centre. depending on what is used you may need to machine the drivers side inner cv shank to fit into the new centre (not required for use with rd 88 locker) and cut the pass side axle down by about 5mm.

[atari4x4]

Is the Vitara front diff a 22 spline or 26 spline?

When I had my front diff built. I used a ring & pinion from a 22 spline 5.12 front diff & a RD88 air locker & had the R&P + air locker built up into a steel housing.

I thought the early auto V6 GV's had coke can housings?

[steak_knife]

Mine is an early, has steel.

Honestly never seen an alloy in a Gv, but if you say so joeblow.

[Mugwui]

Now I'm really confused, I thought it was a case of pull out the GV and bolt in the Vitara, front and rear, looks like I have some work to do.
I'll start up this thread again when I get the lockers, bur I do want to put the 5.12 diffs in now.

[steak_knife]

Mugwui wrote:

Now I'm really confused, I thought it was a case of pull out the GV and bolt in the Vitara, front and rear, looks like I have some work to do.
I'll start up this thread again when I get the lockers, bur I do want to put the 5.12 diffs in now.

Me to, thay no good sittin under the house!!
How much did you get the diff`s for??