f20kills

No. Just the ring and pinion.

chrissa

Do you mean the wear pattern as indicated by Prussian Blue? It may take a few days to round some Blue up and get a digital camera, but sure, I can do that. I just finished splitting the cases and I'm cleaning out the ring/pinion half right now to get an accurate reading of the backlash.

Chris.

chrissa

My dial indicator measures in imperial units. At different points around the ring gear, I consistently measured 0.0050" to 0.0055" readings. That works out to 0.1270 mm to 0.1397 mm. This reading was taken from a Canadian 2001 Kia Sportage front diff with 6000 km (3728 miles) on it.

For reference, my Helm manual lists standard backlash for an '00-'03 S2000 at 0.09 mm to 0.11 mm (0.0035" to 0.0043").

Chris.

Gernby

Does anyone know of a Kia Sportage forum? It would be nice to know what the backlash specs are for a diff rebuild.

chrissa

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gernby
Does anyone know of a Kia Sportage forum?

Big Ben

Good info guys!

I think I will be ordering a set of 4.44's for $75 very soon.

chrissa

Well, I stand corrected about the rear Kia diff backlash. It's actually 0.0035-0.0043 inch (0.09-0.11 mm), just like our S2000 diff (I don't know how I read 0.008 - maybe I was breathing in too much degreaser yesterday...). I did get a reply on 4x4wire.com. A guy over there has a Kia service manual, and he says it doesn't say much about the front diff other than to use the assembly procedures for the rear diff. So I imagine the spec from Kia is the same. I have a feeling that neither Honda nor Kia spec'd that backlash, but the people who designed it (Mazda) did. It seems that same setting keeps showing up all over. Anyone want to check with the Miata guys (just to make sure) and see what they are using for their backlash? Now, I'm not say that's the right spec for our application, but I would like to get an understanding of where these numbers are coming from. Are they just some generic application spec?

Chris.

chrissa

Well, I just finished marking the gear and I got the following photo. It looks like there is a little heel contact, though not too bad.

Gernby

It looks like a pretty significant amount of heel contact to me. Judging by the area where there is the least amount of dye, it looks like the peak of tooth contact is about 2/3 the way out on the tooth. The dye at the inner most portion of the tooth looks almost completely undisturbed. Which thrust washer did you use? If you try a different washer, please post pics and specs again.

chrissa

That's how I found the gears when I cracked open the diff from the wrecked Kia. I'm guessing this is how they wore from the factory. I haven't put these in the S2000 yet.

Something else I noticed, when rotated in the reverse direction, there appeared to be toe contact on the other side of each tooth, proportionally the same amount as the heel contact shown above. As I have never worked on a diff before, I'm not sure what that means. My service manual seems to suggest that both in the forward and reverse direction, both sides of each tooth should show the same pattern.

I also just realized that once taken out of this differential and put in the S2000 diff, this ring and pinion will be running in the reverse direction from what they were running in the Kia (the Kia is a front diff, not a rear diff). How might this effect anything?

Chris.