[suzukitas]

Bit of a tidy up, and anyone who has been in my shed will know that is an ongoing problem I have....Anyhow I start to question If the Vitara front diff setup is as bad as so many people say it is...then why the heck have I got so many of the things hanging around, most in good order. I drive a Vitara and people ask me whether I have a steel diff in the front, and why not, and I always say I have heaps of them so I'll just replace it if I breaks, and I used to carry a spare on bigger trips, But the only time I've ever broken one, was a mount, and that was my fault because I rushed a custom bracket that didn't fit up as it should. Broken a handfull of CV joints. But I'd rather keep that as my weak link as they are easy to swap.
Interesting to see Suzuki tweaking the casing at every series change just a little.
And for reference, all have been stamped with a code(whether its still visible or not is another question) if you lucky enough to get a number you know what factory ring gear was fitted. e.g '41' 41;8=5.125 '39' 39:8=4.875 '37' 37:8=4.625 YOEM=your on ewn mate, do a spin count or open it up..

[Brenno]

Are they all steel ones brad?

[ZUZUKI]

Probably you have a few as the 'average' Vitara spends very little / next to no time in low range.
As in, 9 out of 10 cars.
The ones that do spend some time in low range, with bigger, grippier tyres, & a heavyish right foot, have a much higher chance of failure, but as a percentage of the cars out there, 1.0% & it's not that the front diff is going to break every time you use it in anger, but that is it living on borrowed time if you do.
But that is way too many diffs to have cluttering up your shed.
Rgs, Michael

[Gwagensteve]

You won't have any around in bad order because they're in the tip. There's not much demand for diffs where the pinion and ring gear are now separated by a few feet. As Mike says, 99% of vitaras don't go off road but if you try chasing a Sierra with one you will break a front diff sooner or later. Most vitara front diffs in wreckers have rusty ring gears because they've never been in 4WD.

It's predominantly a mounting issue - that lug on the side of the pinion loads the housing unevenly and twists the pinion off the housing when the diff is heavily loaded (via traction). there were various "fixes" over the years, most of which involved strapping the pinion down to the crossmember which went some way to fixing the problem until the steel GV housings became readily available.

I'd say the peak of vitara failures were 15 years ago now when they were cheap enough to mess about with but expensive enough that people would spend money on them to try and fix the problems and conversely had enough invested in them to want to fix it rather than selling it on. We're not seeing that any more - most people have determined it's futile to try and chase a modified sierra in a Vitara, whilst conversely there are much better cars for camping etc.

[Eddy]

Gwagensteve wrote:

.... there are much better cars for camping

not very many ...

[suzukitas]

Think you both underestimate how many Vitaras in Australia are pushing decent sized rubber without modification and/or just generally being abused.. Remembering that I sell a fair bit of Suzuki spare parts, and heaps of 5.125 gearsets to sierra owners.(removed from Vitara fronts, nearly all of which don't have rust on gears.) If for example someone asked me for a WT sierra front diff(87-95, similar era production time) I would most likely say nope. ''no good ones available.''
And just for arguments sacks and I have been with my fair share of Sierras, on most tracks a stock Vitara will whip a Sierra speed wise, Its only on harder climbs and stuff Sierras seem to excel.

[Gwagensteve]

I can only comment on what I've seen. Yes, I've seen vitaras take plenty of punishment. I've also seen plenty of broken front diffs.