Front differential conversion

[pickledill]

Looking at swapping in a driver side front differential from a GMT900, I've seen it done in the colorados however they deleted the torsion bars and made a very custom weirdly shaped oil pan. Whats different on the driver side about the torsion bars that the transfer case wouldn't clear?

 

[rascole]

Interesting to know they made the TC work with computer, they must have done a SAS to get the driver side drop then gone with manual TC.

 

[pickledill]

Interesting to know they made the TC work with computer, they must have done a SAS to get the driver side drop then gone with manual TC.

Well it was a 2WD colorado so no TC, they used a aftermarket ECU anyway and the AWD transfer case has 0 electronics anyway. They used a front IFS diff out of a GMT900, no solid axle.

I'm just trying to understand how the factory T-case on the colorado/Hummer clears the passenger side torsion bar, but if you do a drive side T-case, it doesn't clear.

 

[rascole]

The torsion bars are not the issue with clearance. The transmission pan is notched to clear the front driveshaft on the passenger side. 2WD Colorados had coil springs not torsion bars.

 

[Happy Hummer]

I'd like to read one of these postings on this topic or see a you tube video.

 

[pickledill]

The torsion bars are not the issue with clearance. The transmission pan is notched to clear the front driveshaft on the passenger side. 2WD Colorados had coil springs not torsion bars.

Interesting, they ran a stock trans pan. Maybe the transfer case they used is bigger and allowed the driveshaft to clear, and in the case of coil springs, I have a 2wd 2010 colorado, it has torsion bars. Which in that case I doubt the factory coil springs would clear front half shafts anyway


The video in question btw, its a 2 part series.

 

[cgalpha08]

The factory t case is narrow, the torsion bars and exhaust sit both between the transmission and the frame rail, and now add a driveshaft to one side. When you go SAS the t bars are gone and it largely doesn't matter since the driveshaft doesn't really go up into the transmission like it does on a stock application.
You could put a drivers drop t-case in thats wider, however jury is out on if you're going to hit the exhaust or t bars.
GM packaged a ton of stuff into a very small area with the H3 and its a process to get bigger stuff in there.
So to sum up....SAS, do whatever you want, possibilities are endless
......driver drop IFS is going to be harder due to the trans pan, and/or the t bars and exhaust.
Also looks like they did a ton of custom work to get that bigger diff in there.

 

[pickledill]

The factory t case is narrow, the torsion bars and exhaust sit both between the transmission and the frame rail, and now add a driveshaft to one side. When you go SAS the t bars are gone and it largely doesn't matter since the driveshaft doesn't really go up into the transmission like it does on a stock application.
You could put a drivers drop t-case in thats wider, however jury is out on if you're going to hit the exhaust or t bars.
GM packaged a ton of stuff into a very small area with the H3 and its a process to get bigger stuff in there.
So to sum up....SAS, do whatever you want, possibilities are endless
......driver drop IFS is going to be harder due to the trans pan, and/or the t bars and exhaust.
Also looks like they did a ton of custom work to get that bigger diff in there.

Yeah, there's certainly a lot of custom work they did. Originally I intended on doing a modified transfer case that allows it to be ran passenger side, but then you still have to deal with the factory front diff which isn't the strongest.

SAS is certainly not something I'd like to do so I'll have to see if I can make coilovers work.

 

[cgalpha08]

Yeah, there's certainly a lot of custom work they did. Originally I intended on doing a modified transfer case that allows it to be ran passenger side, but then you still have to deal with the factory front diff which isn't the strongest.

SAS is certainly not something I'd like to do so I'll have to see if I can make coilovers work.

I would definitely try and reinforce the frame if you go to coilovers. When we do SAS we plate the frame, basically from the front body mount all the way to the rear of the front wheel well. With coilovers all of the load is now going to be up there vs spread out to the back with the T bars.

 

[pickledill]

I would definitely try and reinforce the frame if you go to coilovers. When we do SAS we plate the frame, basically from the front body mount all the way to the rear of the front wheel well. With coilovers all of the load is now going to be up there vs spread out to the back with the T bars.

I'll check that out. I assume I'll need some custom control arms to be able to do coil overs too but thats something I'll have to test

 

[pickledill]

doing some very basic level measuring, coilovers will clear the halfshafts, but not the upper control arms but thats a easy fix