BMW E36 diff into a Merkur???

Hey John. Better get moving on the Supra beam. This guy's not going to be able to keep brackets on his shelf.

"Installed it today went pretty smootly, all the pre fab work sure paid off. only ran into 2 problems, my lower bracket hits the stock exhaust routing, and 1 of the driveshaft center bearing bolts stripped, had to helicoil it.

pulled into the shop at noon, drove home at 4:30, just what I expected.

Bonus, the diff fits in with NO beam mods!! I thought it was hitting the bottom of the beam, so I cut a 1 inch notch, fitted the diff before filling the gap, and could see that it would not hit, so I welded the piece back in. So with the brackets I made, I only had to drill 1 hole in 1 of the stock Diff mounting tabs, because I could not get a bolt in without hitting the diff.


So, if I decide to make a run of brackets, you will need to:
have the pinion flange machined for the centering lip of the stock driveshaft and drill 4 new holes in the flange,
drill the inboard axles from 8mm to 10mm because the BMW diff has 10mm threads on the flanges (the bolt circle is the same)
make a couple small clearance "grinds" to the diff housing,
cut the mounts off of the BMW rear case,
and bolt it in. "

Then later:

"It has been in for 200 miles now, had to replace the front seal as it was leaking, but no issues so far. I thought it would be louder in the car than the stock diff with the rubber mount, but it is way quieter, probably due to the iron vs alloy case.

The 3.15 works OK for a daily, it hooks up really well in 1st now, put you can tell the loss of performance. M3 manual came with a 3.36, so that might be a better option. Also, you can swap the LSD into an open diff pretty easy I heard, and the 325 auto came with a 3.91, and they are CHEAP, so I have a line on another 3.15, and a 3.91 open, and I am going to build a track diff, since it only take 30 minutes to change now.

here are some pics.

view from the front, stock driveshaft, no spacer, and the only mod to the beam is the drilling of the 10mm hole on the drivers side forward lower mount point a little further fwd to clear the diff housing, the other 3 lower mounts use the stock locations and stock bolts."

I do plan to make a short production run with some changes, the front mount will be flat laser cut plate instead of tube, and the tourque bars will be mounted slightly different and triangulated with 2 mount points on the diff (overkill) I am hoping to keep the cost around 150-175, all you will need to do is sort the driveshaft flange, and drill your inner CV mount holes to 10mm, and grind a few small spots on the BMW diff for clearance. there will be NO soft mount version, you will need to hard mount your beam!

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Grant Hughes

Some diff pictures.
The diffs are clutch type and available stock in ratios up to 4.1
Not sure on aftermarket support.

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Grant Hughes

http://www.bamafuel.com/catalog/

Figured I'd just toss this here as well.


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For the technical minded, the computer used is the MegaSquirt v3.0 with MSNS-extra firmware loaded. In layman's terms, this computer will do a lot of cool stuff. It supports both low and high impedance injectors, and up to 44 psi of boost. Several input and output wires are exposed for you to hook up various functions like launch control, water injection control, etc.

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Grant Hughes

Between my phone conversations with JVL and now this i am almost tempted to go out and bring one back home from a place with no rust!

But i know i should stick to FWD for a little bit more...

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rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!

turoc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Between my phone conversations with JVL and now
> this i am almost tempted to go out and bring one
> back home from a place with no rust!
>
>

I have one waiting for you in Raleigh....my spare.

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

That's interesting, I wonder what he means by drill your axles to 10mm? Is he talking about the CV's? I wonder what the difference in weight is going to the iron case.

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Boost early and Boost often

Grant...is this guy on the Merkur Forum? Haven't seen that.

What do you think of the Beemer diffs? Lots of them on Ebay for not too much.

Megasquirt looks good some day also.

By the way, that's a very nice intercooler/radiator set I got...really big intercooler. Short radiator would work with the smaller intercooler also.

First gotta get the 4G63 going...

Stock CVs use M8 bolts. Don't remember the pitch, but I think it was M8 X 1.25 The BMW diff is the same PCD but uses M10 X ?? bolts.

This guy's on Merkursport under the name phlat. He's also the one who discovered the fairly good fit of the VW Jetta bumper.

The Megasquirt was found on Turboford.

I have the radiator, but not the big intercooler. I want as much flow over the radiator and already plan to have a oil and ps cooler in front of it. So I used the Cossie 2WD intercooler. For the radiator I'm welding an AN-16 fitting over the M22 fitting to connect it to a Bailey header tank and Samco Superflex hose to go to the Bailey Swirl Pot and water pump. Bought all this before someone pointed out that you can use modified 89 automatic hoses or something like that. At least mine will look pretty.

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Grant Hughes

The differential set up looks interesting if it does not reduce ground clearance and can survive the abuse of rally. The custom beam is a great idea and the best solution but shipping costs alone make other options worth considering. What is the cost comparision between this option and a JVAB rear beam setup?

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

The BMW diffs are probably more expensive and harder to find in the junkyard. The diff mount and beam bracket stuff he wants to try to keep under $200 if he decides to make them. Looking at the pictures though, it could be done by anyone slightly competent for under $50. The Supra could possibly be done similarily though I wouldn't be sure about the lack of having to modify the beam.

JVAB rear beam setup is still only a prototype. It's hard to even guess what it will sell for since the value of the dollar and price of steel can't be predicted that far out.

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Grant Hughes

One of these weekends I am going to pull the rear beam out of the arts car and start looking at modifying it for a supra differential. It might be a good intermediate step between stock and custom beam. Definitely no style and finesse in the prototype BMW mount. I would assume that a piece for sale would be cleaner. Replacement parts for the supra are definitely cheaper than BMW.


John, start getting thoses beams built!

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

I'm just keeping an eye out for a spare rear beam. Mine was bent to fuck so I threw it away.

Found a possible piece though to replicate the Ford 909 weld on bits to make adjustable rear STAs last week.

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Grant Hughes