Things to Consider When Adding a Quaiffe Limited Slip Differential

by Joe Curry

I recently added a Quaife LSD to my Autocross Spitfire (Tiny Tim) and I must say that it makes a marked improvement to the car's performance.

Recently, Quaife America has reduced their price to a point that it is no longer to resort to ordering the units from abroad.

Some of the things that are important if you are considering such an upgrade are as follows:

1. The unit will only work on later Spitfire and GT6 differentials that have the larger stub axles. This is because there is only one spline size offered.

2. Various gear sets are available for these differentials, but you have to use a set that was designed for use with the later differentials. The pinion shaft is larger and therefore will be substantially stronger than the early Spit/Herald shafts.

3. If you have never done any differential work, I recommend that the change be done by a qualified differential shop so that the gear meshing and bearing loading can be set properly. This will prevent premature failure.

4. I highly recommend that the earlier differentials that do not use a crush spacer be used. The bearing preload is set by the use of shims and therefor is very easy to replace the pinion seal without changing the bearing preload when the front flange is removed and replaced.

5. It is a good idea to check all the bearings and replace the seals in the differential while the conversion is being done.

6. The Gear oil that Quaife recommends is the same as specified for the stock differential by Triumph, so there is no need to run special gear lube in the converted unit.