I am going to be purchasing the 4.57 richmond gear set eventually, and I'm wondering if I should get the comptech reinforced diff.

I know the comptech diff is to prevent the gear/pinion from being forced out the back of the diff. However, from doing some searching and reading, it seems that is not the most common type of failure/damage. It seems most of what goes wrong is inside the diff itself.

My question is, if I'm going to be launching my car, what is the most common type of failure/damage that occurs from that? And does the reinforced diff prevent the kind of damage caused by launching the car?

 

well i searched a bit more thoroughly, and found that the most common is either diff failure or the caps failure (left side most common).

To my understanding comptech's reinforced diff deals with the caps issue, so my question remains, does the comptech diff address the weakness in the caps when launching at the strip? Has anyone had a comptech diff fail on them yet?

I have also heard of people who sheered teeth off their pinion, so is there anything that can be done to reinforce this?

Also, would having the 4.57 gears cause more stress on the rest of the diff? Less?

 

Wesmaster has probably blown every diff there is for our car, one of them being the Comptech reinforced diff. Contact him to get his view on this.

 

I've seen cap failures, and broken teeth on the pinion gear.
This pinion came out of a Turbo S2k making well over stock HP.(525hp, 300ftlbs) The car also has a Comptech housing and ATS diff.


Determining which failure was 1st can be difficult to pinpoint. Similar to what came 1st, the chicken or the egg. If the caps flex, the gears are destroyed. if the teeth come off the pinion, the bits of metal can wedge between the gears and break the caps.

 

When the caps fail the chance of the teath get F'd up are likely also.

 

slowS2k is there anything wrong with that pinion? it looks clean and good to me? and that came out of a turbo'd S2k

 

Every tooth on the pinion is cracked. It wouldn't have been long before the entire diff was destroyed.

 

I found some more pics that show the cracks better

 

I just now noticed the cracks.

 

Here's some Comptech housing and stock comparison pics