Put this in my friend's 82 z28. After we noticed a loud bang at every corner and severe wheelhop, we checked the axle shaft end play. They were moving about 1/8th of an inch side to side!

Called richmond, they said we needed thrust washers to make up for the size difference from the factory diff to the mini-spool. Took it apart, here's what we found....


Thank god for a warranty.

Why would you run a mini-spool on anything that's gonna be street driven? If Richmond hears this you'll be out-of-warranty.

incase you didnt know both wheels are locked together and make turning difficult especially on the street. thats why it broke

I agree with Shagwell, you CANNOT run this on the street, it will break. You need a limited slip diff. On a corner the inside wheel must turn at a different speed than the outer wheel, if the differential is locked as with a spool, one tire must slip on the pavement, well if traction is good enough and the tire doesn't slip, you break parts.

i'd just about bet somewhere in the papers that came with it there is a warning that says something like " not for street use for dirt tracks only"

The car isn't going to be driven on the street. We're building it up for the dragstrip. We only took it around the block to see how it hooked.

a mini spool isn't built to be run at the dragstrip either. they are made for dirt tracks where traction would be limited always. you're going to end up breaking this again.

...thats also written in the part description.

Full spools are cheap enough that I wouldn't bother with another mini, you'll just break it again. If your on the cheap, put the old diff back in and weld the spiders. Just be sure to do it the correct way(yeah, even for being half assed, there is a right and wrong way to do it)

Don't expect to be racing on welded spiders if the tech inspectors find out.

Try finding a full spool for the GM 7.5"... Not easy.

And how would that happen again? You obviously dont know how it fits together. If the thrust washers take up the play, the square center pieces wont be able to jump around like that.

This is not my car, not my money, not my decision. And the car isn't even registered. I just felt like posting this incase someone else ever has this problem.

I would be interested to hear how it went the second time around. I agree LSD's are more streetable but the mini spool for our cars is so damn cheap I've considered giving it a try. But I was gonna get stronger axles and a c-clip elim kit. My application for this idea is drifting where traction is limited hehehe. No way I'd do this on a daily driver.

The car drifted very easily around corners if you gave it just the least bit of gas. Under normal turning, it would just chirp the tires along until the car was straight.

..He said a LITTLE, Crazy... oh yeah drifts easier, don't you go through enough tires?

- also, I think I'd just stay away from any spool/complete locking diff for a 10-bolt. These things are easy enough to break....

Hahahah! My neighbors must think I'm weird because I have between 10 and 30 tires in my garage at any given time. Especially when my drifting car breaks, then the pile really stacks up. Right now the car is posi, but when I watch video of the car transitioning from left to right I can see the posi is not locking right from the way the tires smoke, both do smoke but not always both the same ammount at the same time. MUST KILL MORE TIRES!!!!!

...buy stock in rubber/steel belting companies and find a full spool.
- Still not sure I'd trust a 10-bolt with a spool in it though....
...axle go BOOM....