L300 Front Diff Locker - SOLVED!!!!

[ditto675]

Hi guys,

I have recieved alot of info from this site over the years and thought I would re-post this here for those without an account on the Aus Delica forum. Some of you may remember the post from a while back but I think it was deleted with my old account... I now have added the final write up with some more pics....




Problems;
1 - L300 has a 7.25" front diff so there are no lockers available (or ever will be due to low demand and twin spider gears making the crown wheel housing cramped and small)

2 - L300 has a Low Pinion front diff (driveshaft connects on the lower half of the diff) so you cannot use a L400/Pajero KN5 diff as it is High Pinion. (it will foul on the engine and the pinion shaft angle is not nice at the transfer case and front diff flange)

3 - The L400/Pajero KN5 diff also has super select which I don't want as that's another thing to break....L300's don't have a centre diff so this is pretty useless anyway.

4 - Gen1 8" LP front diffs only come in 4.625 ratios (I have looked for over 2 years now and visited countless wreckers), while the L300 is 4.875. You can swap into the rear L300 diff a rear Pajero 2.5td 4.625 ratio 8" rear centre. Some early petrol L300'salso had a 4.625 LSD rear diff also.

5 - The triton/l200 has wrong axle over leaf setup and pajero track is too wide so you can't do an entire axle swap either.


Solution;
After many false hopes of finding a 8" non-Super Select Low Pinion 4.875 ratio front diff out of a Pajero (apparently they did make them....), I gave up putting my front locker in the van....

On the weekend I replaced the open rear diff on my van with a LSD item from a chamoix l300. It was a direct swap (only need the centre as the axles are exactly the same)!!!

The crown wheel & pinion shaft on the rear 8" diff is identical to the crown wheel & pinion shaft (thank mitsubuishi for sharing parts here otherwise this would have been the end of the project) on the 8" front diff from a gen1 pajero.

Delica/L300 8" Rear Open Diff - Crown Wheel: 39 teeth, Pinion Gear: 8 teeth (4.875 ratio)
Pajero/Triton 8" Front Diff - Crown Wheel: 37 teeth, Pinion Gear: 8 teeth (4.625 ratio)

Basically if you want a front locker for your L300 you will need;
1 - L300 Rear 8" Diff Crown Wheel & Pinion Shaft/gear (as a pair)
2 - Pajero/Triton Gen1 V6 3.0l Manual Transmission 8" Front diff (make sure it's 8" and Low Pinion, Gen2 Pajeros have High Pinion and all other Pajero's in Gen1 other than the V6 manual transmission got 7.25" front diffs).
3 - Diff shop to fit in L300 rear diff crown wheel and pinion shaft to Pajero front diff and crown wheel carrier.
4 - ARB Locker/Lockright/Lokka or any front locker for a Gen1 Pajero 8" front diff.
5 - Make bracket for the side mount on the Pajero front diff, as the L300 front diff doesn't have the side mount. (Not really necessary)
6 - Custom front prop shaft to account for the 8" front diff
7 - Use the L300 RHS Halfshaft as it has the mounting to the front cross-member already. And you can retain both LHS and RHS L300 CV/Drive shafts (only if you originally had an L300 with 28spline shafts not the 25spline version)
8 - Have lots off fun off road!!!!

Pic of a 8" Pajero (LHS) and 7.25" Pajero (RHS) front diffs...note the side mounting tab, l300's don't have this.

How to Identify Pajero Diffs;
* 7.25" Low Pinion - KN? (25 spline). straight ridge from the drain plug all the way back to the pinion flange area (Pajero/Triton)
* 7.25" Low Pinion - KN2 (28 spline). straight ridge from the drain plug all the way back to the pinion flange area (Pajero/Triton)
* 7.25" Low Pinion - KN3 (28 spline). no ridge at the drain plug but a ridge rotated to the side at the pinion flange area (L300/Delica)
* 8" Low Pinion - KN33 (28 spline). ridge from the drain plug and then rotated to the side at the pinion flange area (Pajero/Triton)

[jessef]

I've posted this somewhere in the mods section a few years ago and it got lost.

Over here in North America the 2nd Gen Montero's with the V6 have the larger front axles/diff to accomodate the front stock locker.

Down in the US (Montero's are the underdog 4x4 suv), there are a lot of modified 88-90 Gen I Montero's (same as the 89-96 L300's we currently havein Canada) with this mod.

Good reminder for the posting.

http://www.delica.ca/forum/arb-differen ... -3622.html

http://www.delica.ca/forum/paj-parts-swap-4161.html

Front locker.

You will need to pull the front diff carrier/axles/shafts (GenII is larger) out of a 3.5 Gen II Montero.

Then have a driveline shop cut the front drive shaft to length and balance/mate with the larger diff.

Buy/install a RD110 ARB air locker (the only locker option for the front).

[ditto675]

Some comparison pics of the two diff centres/crown wheel carriers to show they are the same...

8" Pajero Front Diff LHS, 8" L300 4x4 Rear Diff RHS

[ditto675]

Thought I better do the write up on this conversion as I have had 3 questions in the last 2 weeks about it and I have done over 200km of 4wd'ing with the 8" front diff and Lokka fitted, with no issues.

Note as some have found out the KN number is meaningless and the only reliable way of checking you have a 8" front diff is by looking at the ridge on the underside and making sure it rotates to the side and does NOT extend the whole length of the diff. (see first post for info)

Basically the first thing you will have to do is decide what diff ratio you want. I have done one of my vans with the std. 4.875 ratio and one with the also std. but less common 4.625 ratio.


4.875 Ratio
1 - Find a 8" REAR diff from another 4.875 ratio L300 Delica and remove the Ring gear and pinion shaft.

2 - Find a Pajero/Triton Low Pinion 8" front diff (which only come in 4.625 ratios). You will only need the centre housing so don't get the half shaft to the RHS driveshaft and you will be reusing your L300 driveshafts anyway... You will need to keep the bolts circled in red below from the pajero/triton diff as the L300 diff has 22mm head bolts where the Pajero/Triton ones have 17mm head bolts there. All other bolts are identical.


3 - Swap in the Ring gear and Pinion shaft you have just got from the rear diff of the L300 into the pajero diff so you now have a 4.875 ratio front diff also. Best get a transmission shop to do this so they can setup the pinion preload and backlash.

4 - Fit your choice of a 8" front locker for the Pajero/Triton to the diff. I used a Goanywhere Auto Lokka.

5 - Fit the L300 halfshaft to the pajero diff note the holes are larger in the half shaft because of the L300's 21mm bolt there. I centered the smaller 17mm bolt and tightened it up and on the other van I offset it so that the bolt is against the halfshaft hole (neither has moved if the 4wd'ing I have done, so I would recommend centering it so the diff fits more centrally on its subframe mounts).

6 - Fit l300 LHS subframe mount to the diff, cutting off the tab as seen in the picture above. See below for final assembly with the LHS mount top cover in place of the cut off tab.


7 - Fit new Front diff to the van.



4.625 Ratio
Some early Petrol L300 delicas came out with a 4.625 ratio diff. If you have one of these your job is easier as all you need to do is to find your pajero/triton front diff and follow from step 4 on.

If you want to have a 4.625 rear diff, then the Pajero 2.5td rear 4.625 diff measured up to be a direct swap. (Note I didn't do this as I had a wrecked L300 with a LSD 4.625 rear diff which I used). You could also find another 8" front diff and swap the ring gear and pinion shaft into your rear diff (the opposite of steps 1-3 above)



DriveShaft
Contrary to popular belief that the 8" diff is LONGER than the 7.25" Delica diff it is actually SHORTER!!! (It is however longer than the Pajero/Triton 7.25 diff which is where this mis-information would have started) This is the one detail which will tell you if someone was BS'ing you that they had a 8" front diff in their L300 delica (note the L400 Delica is another story)

See pics below.




This means you can fit the 8" diff and maintain the std front prop shaft length. This is the only reason I held off on this write up as the dust shield now covers only a small amount of the transfer case and I wanted to test it for at least a couple of hundred km's.

Before 8" diff


With 8" diff (note the oil is leakage from fitting the prop shaft and it is NOT coming out of the seal even after 200km in 4wd and over 600km in 2wd. The scratch marks on the shield were there before fitting the 8" diff also)


I have lengthened the propshaft by 15mm on one van (the original conversion) and left the other van like this and it has not caused any issues. I will however get the front prop shaft lengthened as I don't like the idea of extra leverage placed on the transfer case bearings...



Front Diff Clearance
As you can see in the photos below the 8" front diff has made very little difference to the ground clearance and clearance to the front subframe member looks std. The top cover however clamps down hard on the diff (it has a rubber buffer there as std.) which is actually a good thing as it is held in there more securely....

Std. front diff


8" front diff


In the end it is actually a very simple conversion that allows you to fit a front locker and GREATLY increase the vans abilities offroad!!!!

[ditto675]

jfarsang I think we have had this conversation before the GenII front diff will not fit the L300 Delica. And by simply swapping the front diff over how are you solving the different ratios 4.875 for the L300 and either 4.625 or 5.29 for the Pajero???? Remember the L300 has no centre diff and different ratios will break the transfer case within a few hundred metres because of windup!!!

The larger GenII (non auto) and GenI (in the V6 manual only) share the same sized diff/shafts/etc... except for the super select and high pinion vs low pinion shaft configurations.

I am yet to find a L300 with the smaller 25 splines that's why you retain the L300 driveshafts and halfshaft to the diff (halfshaft also has welded to it the front subframe mount).
I am not saying the 25spline delica doesn't exist but I have looked for a long time to find one. I have found several Jap import GenI 2.5td Pajero's with 25splined axles rather than the 28splines and they were all the 7.25" diff....

I'm only posting this info as I doubt anyone has actually done this mod as the driveshaft does NOT 'need' to be cut at all as the 8" diff is actually shorter than the 7.25" delica diff which is the opposite of everything I have read!!!! Also no one has mentioned how to solve the mounting tab on the RHS of the pajero diff which the L300's don't have. I tired to make a bracket on my first van, but there is simply not enough space and the only way is to angle grind/cut off the tab and use the L300 std. cover style bracket.

Plus pics help others to do this mod far more than writing about it

[jessef]

My 88 V6 Montero with the larger axles and 4.625 gears is a direct swap into an L300 or 1st gen Pajero. Only thing required is to cut down the front driveshaft/rebalance this was from a Montero to a Montero.

The front driveshaft and the side mount are the mods needed.

Montero's here come with 4.625's (correct size) and 4.88's (not the right crown/pinion so not useable).

I think we're on the same page bro.

[naujux]

Hi, I have one question. This front/rear diff is the same petrol engine and diesel? for what kind of l300 you write for?
I am riding Mitsubishi L300 2.5TD 4wd. I would like to know this information I found in this forum will be useful for me or not. Thanks.