Anyone else ran a locker in a rwd rally car?

Oh yeah I know you can break rwd axles-I've done some of that myself(dana44).

And yes assuming you actually let off the gas every once in a while so it can unlock-a detroit style locker is going to be easier on your axle shafts than a spool.

So I CAN see how it helped with the Volvo breaking axles.

My question I guess is more -is the dana 30 sufficient for that specific rally car in the first place?

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Kind of interesting. I come from an RX-7 background. There were two main flavors of RX-7 rearend, the "small bearing/axle" 24 spline units and 26 spline "big bearing/axle". Spline pitch is roughly the same as common American units so you can roughly correlate axle size to Dana/GM/Ford units.

Australian guys making "big" power in the 90s (500-600hp at flywheel) with cheap Japanese junkyard turbo engines found that the big axle rears were actually weaker than the small axle ones, since the small axle rears had stiffer housings, while the big axle rear had thinner material to save weight. The axles themselves may have been stronger but when the housing bows and flexes under load, the axle would be forced to bow and flex too and then it'd break.

And what did Ford and just about everyone else rallying in the 70s do with their solid axles.... big fat beefy trusses and braces and diff covers assemblies that extended out practically to the hubs. And full floating housing ends so that the axle was just an axle, making not just the wheel support stronger since it now had two bearings, but the axle could also have more leeway to flop around in its splines WHEN things shifted.

Interesting that I broke my first axle at the same event that I broke one of my rearend braces off. Coincidence or nail in the coffin?

Anyway, I'm thinkin', how strong is the Dana 30 housing, and is there a good brace/truss setup available if it could stand for improvement?

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2017 06:03AM by Pete.

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RALLYRS
My question I guess is more -is the dana 30 sufficient for that specific rally car in the first place?

Most definitely. Bracing the axle is definitely a good idea. Bracing it would not be a big issue either. The axle breaking is usually just an issue when the diff is welded. There are people making 780+whp/700+lb-ft and and running it through a stock diff. The v8 powered "drift" volvo I have has never broken an axle in 2 years. But, I run really crappy tires on it and never turn it sharp on asphalt unless the rear tires are smoking

my Toyota axle is both not braced and running the Weir kit. Booya.

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
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Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

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Gravity Fed
my Toyota axle is both not braced and running the Weir kit. Booya.

So the next thing would be for you to actually drive it? Say, at Mendocino?

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Self-righteous douche canoe

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hoche

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Gravity Fed
my Toyota axle is both not braced and running the Weir kit. Booya.

So the next thing would be for you to actually drive it? Say, at Mendocino?

And, how's your mazdog coming along, sir?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
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is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Mine? Found a new shell for it, all straight, rust around the the windows, some small floorpan holes, no other damage. Won't get to pick it up until the end of July, when the current owner finishes stripping all the stuff he wants from it. That's fine as it should give me enough time to finish unpacking the garage.

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Self-righteous douche canoe