Phantom Grip LSD
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 22
From: orlando, fl
taken from http://kmhafer.datsun510.com/Subaru.htm
"Phantom Grip units are advertised as a way to convert an open differential into an LSD unit. They run $250-$300, and have applications for R-160 and R-180 differentials. I have heard of these working ok for awhile, then suddenly not working, leaving you with an open differential. For the price, you might as well buy a genuine LSD. Bluebirds List member Jeff Cook has this to say about them in a Bluebirds posting:
"They call it a "Phantom Grip", but I call it something else. If I may be permitted to reprise an email I posted sometime back... From the looks of it, all this unit does is spring-load the side gears against their washers, turning them into half-assed clutches, while adding a wedge ramp to increase the pressure as the side gears try to turn relative to the cross shaft. There are several problems with this approach. First, those side gear washers have no clutch material on them, and the Phantom Grip (Phantom Menace?) unit doesn't appear to come with any that do. (Not that it would do much good, there being no provision in the differential case for a proper stack of frictions and steels.) As this unit operates, you're gonna be wearing away the side gears and differential case. With the spring pressure against them, but without the waffle surface of a clutch disc, there's not much opportunity for lubricant to get into the side gear washers. Since the "clutches" are just metal-on-metal, and running virtually without lubricant, the breakaway characteristics are not going to be very progressive, or predictable, as things heat up. The wedge ramp also induces stresses on the differential case that it was never designed to handle. When (not if) this unit chatters, the wedge ramps are gonna be trying to split the differential case in two. Incredible testimonials aside, this seems to be a very poor substitute for a proper LSD, and way overpriced for what is essentially a couple machined plates and a few springs. I would certainly not consider the Phantom Grip in the same league as PowerTrax or Air Locker."
Hope this helps.
"Phantom Grip units are advertised as a way to convert an open differential into an LSD unit. They run $250-$300, and have applications for R-160 and R-180 differentials. I have heard of these working ok for awhile, then suddenly not working, leaving you with an open differential. For the price, you might as well buy a genuine LSD. Bluebirds List member Jeff Cook has this to say about them in a Bluebirds posting:
"They call it a "Phantom Grip", but I call it something else. If I may be permitted to reprise an email I posted sometime back... From the looks of it, all this unit does is spring-load the side gears against their washers, turning them into half-assed clutches, while adding a wedge ramp to increase the pressure as the side gears try to turn relative to the cross shaft. There are several problems with this approach. First, those side gear washers have no clutch material on them, and the Phantom Grip (Phantom Menace?) unit doesn't appear to come with any that do. (Not that it would do much good, there being no provision in the differential case for a proper stack of frictions and steels.) As this unit operates, you're gonna be wearing away the side gears and differential case. With the spring pressure against them, but without the waffle surface of a clutch disc, there's not much opportunity for lubricant to get into the side gear washers. Since the "clutches" are just metal-on-metal, and running virtually without lubricant, the breakaway characteristics are not going to be very progressive, or predictable, as things heat up. The wedge ramp also induces stresses on the differential case that it was never designed to handle. When (not if) this unit chatters, the wedge ramps are gonna be trying to split the differential case in two. Incredible testimonials aside, this seems to be a very poor substitute for a proper LSD, and way overpriced for what is essentially a couple machined plates and a few springs. I would certainly not consider the Phantom Grip in the same league as PowerTrax or Air Locker."
Hope this helps.
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