For on road use you will want little to no preload, essentially start with it as it is. You can also swap plates and remove the spring plate and swap that for a flat. This way under light throttle it will open fully but it will come in fairly aggressively when you apply power. This can induce understeer till you lift throttle, can be a bit unsettling.
If used primarily off road you want to change the stack to get full grip. To me I still prefer low preload but you do want the spring plates in it still so it will ramp up when a wheel lifts.

There is a Mazda RX7 torsen diff that with some machining will go in the front of these as well.

That's the setup I used in the front of my Raider. I took almost all the preload out ( removed the pre load springs) of it and added extra clutch plates so that when it does come in it has more grip.

On the road in the snow its been decent. I did find that when making sharp turns in heavy loose stuff, goosing the throttle a little pulled it around the corner. I never got going fast enough for understeer.

The low pre load LSD w extra plates is great for an auto. All it takes is a little preload on the brake pedal as you take off to get it to generate some decent friction.

Kevin

I have one in my GenI truck, too.

I have a spare V6 front axle sitting in my garage ready to go.

One of you wise heads school me on a torsen, how it works, what advantages/disadvantages. All I know for sure is that torsen stands for torque sensing, even after I read the wiki article, and it seems unless you have a type2r, an airborne wheel will get all the torque. Huh? goes my thinker...

Sure, the Torsen diff uses helical gears that when under load bind up due to the side thrust of the gears. This binding generates friction linear to the amount of load on each wheel. They are fast acting diffs but are smooth in action. The friction during lockup is proportional to the load applied whereas something like a Salisbury diff, (Plate Clutch type)is generally non linear to the load applied. The primary difference between a type 1 and type 2 Torsen is the later has preload in it. It still will not provide a traction increase much above what the preload is with a wheel off the ground.

The Torsen diff Kevin has would have been made by Gleason in the mid 80s, many were made but few survived. They did not have the materials and heat treat right, Unfortunate part of pioneering. There were a few later ones that lasted and maybe Kevin's is from the later production. But by then they were loosing the OEM contracts and were in financial difficulties. I have both a Mazda and a Honda Torsen diff in some cars and they are nice to drive. They are really suited well for a front axle application due to the linear lockup under load. Both of mine are in rear drive cars though. They are not an off road diff due to the fact they want both feet on the ground.

Thank you sir. It's a better mousetrap that doesn't catch my kind of mice. Looks best suited to road cars, esp. center diffs.

Both center and front diffs in cars are great use for them.

@David - Do I have pull? I am in the contemplating stages of modifying my new MM turbo by replacing the 3.9 gear sets with Montero 4.625s. I have a rear diff that I could send out fairly easily in the coming weeks.

@the other folks - My other question hope fully adds to this thread. Now that I have acquired all these former Starion parts, including an LSD rear carrier, what are my options for the front axle on the 4x4? The Starion LSD simply replaces the open carrier? What is my next course for front traction aid?

Russell

As I remember the procedure, you put the 4.625 ring gear on the starion carrier/lsd unit. You have to swap the spacer from one side of the diff to the other, which will usually get the side gear adjustment range in range of the right contact pattern. This is because the pinion gear tooth counts are different, and thus the pinion gear diameters are different. You mostly don't have to fiddle with the pinion gear install height as the ring gear diameter is unchanged, and you still have a matching gearset. You may have to fiddle with side gear adjustment some. Not having to fool with the pinion gear takes out 80% of the headache of setting up the diff and the need for a bunch of special tools.

I'd do the spring plate swap for friction disks as noted by Kevin. Not too tough to do.