Torsen Differential

Anyone put a torsen style differential into their 2nd gen? I recently learned about them and want to give them a try.

 

I had one in my Miata.

 

I have the eaton truetrac, works bitchin! Locks up quick and hard, lots of sideways motion!
4.56 w/ 35s

 

How is it during daily driving? The roads out here are pretty slick when it rains. I can see it working quite well offroad but my truck is still my DD.

 

its great for dding, lets you be able to move when its slick and not just spin a tire. only go sideways when you want it to. its not real useful crawling, but no limited slip is.

 

I've put them in multiple Toyota trucks, they work great. I wish I had one instead of the e-lsd. They do an outstanding job at preventing the one wheel spin in the rain/snow. They are much better than an open diff off-road, but if into rock crawling where you may lift a wheel off the ground a locker would be better. In one of my trucks I ran them front and rear.

 

Go for it, the Army has them in the HMMWV's and if ya get a wheel of the ground just apply the brakes slightly with your left foot and press the gas with your right. The slight friction from the brake will help the Torsen/trutrac lock up again and good to go.

 

Does anyone have the front? Which one?

Planning on a regear and feels dumb to not do it while in there.
Truetrac is waiting to go in the back. Better than stock. Not really trying to deal with e-locker or air locker (and associated) at this time. I've managed off roading fine so far, and don't crawl rock gardens like a dedicate trailered rig.
with 35's and stock CV's, putting a straight up locker in front sounds like a way to increase likelyhood of snapping them, among other concerns.

I guess I'll hit up vendors and see if they have in stock.
It would not be good to place an order, then never get anything forever besides *maybe* an email response after accepting money, of "well we don't have it, and don't know when we will"

(I've heard a lot that these front diffs are damn near unobtainable)

I think there's at least two.
1. Nitro helical worm gear



2. Nitro helix helical gear (not sure why they have two that also look different)
(assuming front is in fact 8" as the site suggests)



3. supposedly there's a 3rd option, truetrac 8" front, haven't confirmed:



4. Scion FRS LSD is said to be able to fit in front, but difficult, custom work involved. Might be a torsen.

Not sure what this guy used:



according to Eaton website,
05-15 Tacoma is 8", 30-spline

JustDifferentials claims there is a TrueTrac that is 8" 30spl, "reverse front"
I would guess if one does do the available TrueTrac rear, that it would be wise if going LSD front, that it would also be a TrueTrac
However, maybe it doesn't have to be same brand, but possibly same technology. For example, NitroGear helical front, Truetrac helical rear: both are helical.

5. Auburn grip-n-lock, 8" 30spl, *might* fit front. Claims to use clutches. Clutch diff does not sound good, let alone bigger tires



6. Yukon Duragrip, claims to have an 8" 30spl that uses clutches
sounds sketch to me. Clutches wear. Require maintenance. Clutch diffs generally don't like or work well with bigger heavier tires.

 

Do you have an otherwise stock front end? If so, others on this forum have suggested that due to the nature of how our front diffs engage in stock form that a Truc-Trac type differential won't be appropriate for that application. If you had manual locking hubs, that'd be a different story.

 

front is stock 3.73
Picked up another spare front diff 3.73 and have 4.88 revolution gears I need to put in

also planning on ADD delete and FJ tcase swap

saw a post about someone putting in a Speedmasters LSD into a 4th gen T4R diff (might be the same diff) and performing well. Supposedly just needs a touch of the brakes to kick on if one wheel comes off the ground in 4LO

YouTube video of the guy with 2nd gen reg cab 4cyl on 4.88 with torsen front seems to do well also

edit: OK I understand. Yes I don't know if it would be bad to have an LSD there given spinning of front wheels in 2HI due to non manual unlock hubs.
vs. a locker that would otherwise be open.

 

You're out of my wheelhouse at that point, I've read a bit about the FJ case swap and ADD delete but I'm not aware of the differences it makes on the front drivetrain when not engaged in 4WD.

In any case, here's a thread from a while back where ovrlndkull broke it down for me a bit to explain why no True-trac in the front:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/detroit-trutrac-install.580689/page-2

 

Here's an interesting thread on putting a GR86/ScionFRS Torsen rear diff in the front diff of a Tacoma. No follow-up posts but interesting none-the-less.

8” IFS Clamshell w/FRS Torsen | Tacoma World

 

yeah that is one option. I believe at one point Zuk@gearinstalls was able to make it work.

Might just keep front open diff. Was reading posts claiming the following:
1. Torsen increasing likelyhood of snapping CV on big tires
2. Premature wear on tight Torsen due to non manual hubs, with the front wheels constantly trying to spin it at different speeds and binding in turns even in RWD

might be risky to try it and find out
Supposedly ECGS doesn’t recommend it