I'm planning on building a midengined bikepowered car with a chaindriven lsd, is it possible to use a lsd from a ordinary car, like sierra, seal it and fill it with grease then use it in the "open". I've also been thinking about mounting the engine longitudal and couple it to a complete differential housing using a very short propshaft. The problem for me in mounting it like this is that the bikeengine will lean over to the left, wich is will put most of the weight into that direction and as I am a swedem thats also the side of the car that I will be placed with all my 85 kilos. What do you guys think?

I think u shud go for a quaife atb diff. Bike chain jus fits straight on

The problem is I canīt afford one of those. :/

how about using the engine longitudinally but driving the diff off the sprocket. Then you can select a custom final drive ratio, and the diff is still sealed. plus the engine can be to either side. Having said that, you would need the sprocket to be further out to have the engine on the right hand side of the car. Maybe a small prop, with a bearing at far end, with a sprocket on it.

Go here:

www.fsae.com

Register for the forum and ask the kids -- Formula SAE stuff is "hella cool"

Or, volunteer at the local Uni and figure it out face to face.

Cheers, Ted

I think the grease may interfere with the LSD idea, they usually run different oil to standard diffs and might not work with anything else.

Quaife ATBs run in standard gear oil because they are gear type LSDs, and Sierra viscous LSD internals are sealed so the diff itself also uses normal oil, its only plate type LSDs that need special oil to allow the plates to slip correctly.
With regards to the Quaife ATB, it doesnt connect directly up to a chain diff as mentioned above, the ATB itself is only a bolt-in addition to an existing crown wheel / pinion so is different for each application, not to be confused with Quaife's chain driven rear diff for BECs that has an ATB inside (an ATB is about Ģ4-600, a full chain driven diff for a BEC is a lot more)

cheers

Chris

[Edited on 31/5/04 by ChrisGamlin]

How effective is the Sierra viscous lsd? Maybe it would do for my needs..