Life Span of KAAZ clutch plates

[bonespec]

No springs in a Kaaz LSD, just ramps.

Without torque on the other axle it won't lock up, sorta like a Quaife.

My Kaaz lasted 50k miles on the street, autox, and drag racing when I finally broke both drive plates on one side.



I don't have any pics of when I tore it apart, but might be rebuilding it over the winter to sell to a ITB/ITC Honda Racer.

From KaazUSA website

[Greg Amy]

Ah, then that makes perfect sense. Yup, without springs there's no way that a LSD will "LS" without some sort of torque bias. Which is *exactly* why I believe the Quaife - and now, the Kaaz - is the wrong design for racing.

I'm a "sprung-clutch LSD" man - or spooler - for auto racing, all the way...

[seckerich]

The last part on the outside of that diagram is a bellville washer (spring) and puts a small preload on the spring pack. To see what it has you need to measure the stack height (need micrometer, depth mic, etc) and see how much that spring is collapsed. As the packs wear you loose preload quick because of the short travel length and it needs to be reset. The ramps only work when both wheels are touching pavement so you now have wheel spin over the bumps.

[karter74]

Edit- I was reminded that because it is cam type load it may free spin under light load. Limping back in may not give it enough load to lock the clutches.

I will say I did some curb hopping with mine and no wheel spin at all.

[Sandro]

I emailed Bill, at Bildon and he brought up a valid point that

"If you apply torque to the diff (accelerate) then the pins will ride up the
ramps and lock the diff plates. The more you apply the throttle the more it
will lock. Only if you lift off will the clutches release and allow the
axles to rotate independently."

so basically with the broken axle I couldn't get the plates to lock. Which makes sense.

[bonespec]

<<< Got towed a mile back to the shop with a bad axle in my Kaaz tranny.


I guess I was having too much fun in the snow that night

[chewy8000]

Sandro,

I ran mine all season with no issues in the MKIII golf. I will most likely rebuild it over the winter though. One issue I did notice and you will as well with that trans is the output shafts have a ton of play in them. I contacted KAAZ several times and they said it's normal? I don't think it's normal that it eats output shaft seals and my trans leaks constantly...