Homemade differential brace...

[ChrisRay]

I had a few hours to kill between service calls on New Year's Day... And the Supra has been sitting, so I decided to tackle the task of bracing the differential. $18.XX from Lowe's, a can of black spray paint I already had and some scrap 2" 1/4" flat stock. Everything is welded solid including the spacers. There is a flat washer that is between the spacer and the aluminum and grade 10.9 coated bolts. I left the tabs down lower because I'm going to attach to them later and make a differential cooling scoop. I'll probably tie the bracket ends together for more strength. I will eventually do brackets, similar Twisted Tuning's, for the front. I also wanted to leave the NVH device in play. I'm very pleased with the outcome. It was extremely cold in my garage and the paint ran but I will eventually be welding more onto the bracket, so I didn't really care what it looks like. I have a bunch more stuff to get powder coated later and we'll probably take it off and do that then. Here is to New Year's fun and saving at least $300.

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[rwense]

I commend you for the DIY approach. Atleast you wont have people telling you "your logo is stupid"

 

[ChrisRay]

I commend you for the DIY approach. Atleast you wont have people telling you "your logo is stupid"

And for what it's worth... I almost pre-ordered your bracket. I believe you have the nicest one on the market. And I'd be happy to have your logo on my car. I think you just should have added one more bolt on the opposite side but maybe it's not needed...

 

[rwense]

And for what it's worth... I almost pre-ordered your bracket. I believe you have the nicest one on the market. And I'd be happy to have your logo on my car. I think you just should have added one more bolt on the opposite side but maybe it's not needed...

I appreciate that! Yeah there's plenty of ways to go about it, all of which i think should be perfectly fine, just a matter of how nitpicky haha.

 

[razorlab]

For what it's worth, I noticed zero difference with that dampener off. There is another one above it as well that is still on.

Only thing that dampener does is get in the way of fluid changes. Although I doubt you care about that since you just caged those bits in.

 

[ChrisRay]

I actually need to take better pictures. I made sure I didn't block the differential plug for fluid changes. I wonder if anybody has measured with a decibel meter inside the vehicle with and without the damper to see if there's any difference in harmonics? Vibrations should come through as a sound increase one would think?

 

[Eastwood]

It would look much better with a logo

 

[razorlab]

I actually need to take better pictures. I made sure I didn't block the differential plug for fluid changes. I wonder if anybody has measured with a decibel meter inside the vehicle with and without the damper to see if there's any difference in harmonics? Vibrations should come through as a sound increase one would think?

You have to take the sensor out to drain it.

 

[ChrisRay]

Well thank you for my ignorance. I've been removing the plug and sucking out the fluid the entire time. I never realized you could pull the sensor out to drain it. Because I'm so used to doing it on all my BMWs I never thought any different. That will make it easier in the future. I will incorporate that into my new design when I build in the differential cooling plate. I'm hoping to go out and test the car the next few days.

 

[razorlab]

Well thank you for my ignorance. I've been removing the plug and sucking out the fluid the entire time. I never realized you could pull the sensor out to drain it. Because I'm so used to doing it on all my BMWs I never thought any different. That will make it easier in the future. I will incorporate that into my new design when I build in the differential cooling plate. I'm hoping to go out and test the car the next few days.

Well your way works too but taking the sensor out is way easier. It's also how the workshop manual states to do it.

 

[ChrisRay]

Great diagram!
Testing....I got to test in-between storms with cold tires....so not the best condition but worthy of testing still.
First impressions:
Smooth surface road...wheel hop pretty much gone.
Uneven surface....wheel hop still but not as violent.
Conclusion....need to brace front of diff too and re-test but 50% better
Un-expected impressions: (Manual transmission)
Holy cow!!!! The shifting is far better! Hard pushing both up shifting and down shifting is so much better. It's smooth and just falls into gear. A lot of the notchy shifts are almost gone. I figured the transmission was just breaking in because it has been getting smoother but what I didn't realize was how much of the rear end play was affecting the shifting. I bet that when I get the front differential brace this will improve even more. In fact, I'm not sure if this is going to fix the wheel hop and I don't even care because I'm so happy with how the transmission feels now. I am going to play with the bushings on every control arm and subframe like the final edition has done and improved slowly to see which one is the main culprit or combination thereof. From all the research I found on here, the changing of the control arms and the toe position is the most prominent fix. I have a feeling once everything is rigid, the issue might be gone or resolve itself. I am going to machine mount braces and really narrow the issue down for us stock suspension guys. Even if I don't improve it much, I enjoy the challenge of fixing something myself and making parts from scratch. I have to invest in a new lathe, so it may take me some time before I can give an update but will be happy to share my results. If I can come up with a good, inexpensive fix, I'd happily make parts for others at reasonable costs to help improve the chassis.

 

[DC5UPRA]

Interesting with the MT aspect. Curious now to see myself once I get @rwense brace installed.

 

[BMWAF]

The shifting is far better! Hard pushing both up shifting and down shifting is so much better. It's smooth and just falls into gear. A lot of the notchy shifts are almost gone.

Be careful of the placebo affect and that pesky confirmation bias.

 

[garudathree]

cool diy solution, but there’s no way the diff brace affects shift quality with the u joint/2 flex disks in between.

 

[lucky phil]

cool diy solution, but there’s no way the diff brace affects shift quality with the u joint/2 flex disks in between.

Forget the logic, the balls in motion now and the diff brace will be the must have, game changer, best mod you can do to your Supra for shift action in the universe.
Phil

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