[email protected] wrote:
It's not a Quaife, but a Torsen. Both are brands of gear-based torque-sensing
differentials. Torsen is the American company that developed it, Quaife is a
British company that uses the same principle. Both Quaife and Torsen have
served as OEM suppliers of differentials to various carmakers. Torsen was the
OEM for Alfa.
The Torsen differential was first used in the 147 Q2 and other models with the
C.530 6-speed transaxle, but it also fits in the 5-speed C.503 transaxle of the
164 with some modification to the speedometer gear.
If there's one thing I'd change on our 164S, aside from that damned
spoiler, it'd be the diff. Giving it the boot in second gear would be a
lot more pleasant if I didn't have to arm-wrestle the wheel for control,
especially since the PO replaced the original S steering rack with a
standard 164 one. (His primary reason was economic, but he tells me that
spring arrangement wasn't much help anyway.) Torque steer can be fun, I
suppose, but I'm too old to appreciate it; bouncing off the rev-limiter
(the other thing that often happens at such times) is about all I can stand.
So: assuming that this Torsen can be fitted to the 5-speed, what is its
availability and (assuming the engine is out for other work anyway)
what's the approximate level of difficulty? Is this within the abilities
of a decent-to-good Alfa mechanic?
Will
--
to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
