How to make a SRB Bevel Gear Diff

After my first few drives of my 'new to me' Super Champ I was disgusted at how badly it handled. The main issue I could see was the lack of a diff and the solid drive rear end.

Solution: Fit a differential!

I almost fell off my chair when I seen the price of a secondhand well used Thorp Ball Diff and the wife seen too and said 'No Way!'. Only option left is to make one.

As promised, here is a guide to making your own Bevel Gear Diff centre for a SRB from readily available parts and at the fraction of the cost of an expensive Thorp Ball Diff.

The Instruction pages are pretty straight forward.

Suggested tools for this are a small lathe (electric drill mounted in a vice with a tooling mount to hold your bit works), a dremel, small fine files (thread files are good) and LOTS of patience!

What you need:

What to do with them:

After reassembling my Super Champ today and driving it for the first time with a diff I can honestly say it transformed the buggy. It now steers and doesn't spinout.

So far so good and it has not broken after many battery runs with the 4600Kv CM36s.

I'm surprised that no one else had thought of this combination of parts before with it being so simple.

EDIT:

A few have mentioned strength issues with the diff setup. The spline IS long enough and it's bonded with loctite (more spline than a Manta-Ray ball diff). The other issue was keeping the Final gear from becoming buckled or eccentric. To address the later issue I have modded my diff to add an alloy plate either side of Final gear that clamps the Star shaft centre.

If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
SRB Slipper Clutch