I'm in the process of researching the conversion of our baby to a stick!...My wife and I are the proud owners of a 95 850T5-r with 54k miles on the clock. Aside from redline Lube all around, the car remains completely stock, but is sorely needing a late model 5 speed. I can lay hands on the tranny and all other ancillary bits (including appropriate aftermarket CPU, etc), but can't for the life of me source a limited slip diff! Does anyone know of a source for either a clutch packer or gear LSD for this particular setup?

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.

why would you want lsd in fwd....seems to me all you would be doing is sacrifing handling (aka spining one of your steering wheels)...

Dunno, but although i have it on my RWD i REALLY dont think i would want it on a FWD...but hey its your car....

Actually Kick, that's exactly what i'm trying to get rid of.....one spinning wheel, which is caused in this case by an open differential (the stock unit)

Here's Basic Differential 101. Differentials come in 3 basic flavors:

Spool - We don't need to concern ourselves with spools, as they are a locked axle that doesn't allow for differential action at all. They have specialized applications such as oval racing where tire size stagger can be used to compensate for the lack of differential action, offroad, where the driving surface can slip, etc.

Open Differential - this is what comes stock on almost every grocery getter in the universe. By means of a gearset, it allows the inner and outer wheels of a car to travel at different rates, , however, if one wheel begins to spin, it will happily apply all of the motor's power to that one spinning wheel while the other wheel remains effectively motionless....BLEH....BAD.

Limitesd Slip Differential - While maintaining all of the functionality of an open differential, the limited slip goes one further. In the event of a single wheel breaking traction, the differential transfers power away from the spinning wheel to the one that has grip. This is generally accomplished by one of three methods - clutch packs that are engaged more and more as one wheel spins, a worm-gear systems, as in the offerings from Quaife and Torsen, and the factory R specification viscous coupling LSD...bastard cousin of the torque converter. Regardless of the means, the purpose of an LSD is 2-fold: 1) offer differential action so that the inner and outer wheels can sustain a speed differential during cornering (outside wheel travels further than inside in a turn), and 2) to control single wheel spin by reducing the power being applied to the spinning wheel and applying it to the wheel that is still "hooked up".

Since my T5-r likes to eat rather expensive rubber and isn't living up to all of it's potential, I am looking for a limited slip for it.

Sound reasonable?

850's in general and T5-r's in particular have problems with both torque steer and the resultant single wheel spin. There is no point at all in trying to increase the output of the motor if you simply spin one heel like mad when trying to launch hard - be it from a stop or off of a slow corner

yeh i get that...but thats what tracs is for....and anyway all a lsd will achieve in a FWD car is to load the opposing wheel up to the point where that starts spinning too...now when your stearing is going through those two wheels thats SERIOUSLY bad news...

I really dont get teh torque steer comments, compaired to MOST FWD cars the 850 doesnt have it, and i mean it really doesnt, if your geting THAT much torque steer than I think you should check out engine mounts and suspension componants..

To put this in context I have the 2.5 20 valve with the variable intake (runs 170bhp stock) and the torque steer is almost undetectable planting it all the the way to the floor from a standing start through kickdown into top gear...
and by way of comparison compaired to my 940t (not bone stock and probably up over 200bhp due to a non standard exhaust/intake setup and a manual box) its damn near as quick..so i dont think the 850 is down on power...

I would look at your tyre choice and presures, I know it took me awhile to find the 'right' presures on mine and it felt really nasty even 1-2lbs out...(oh im running t5 wheels btw..)I seem to remember noticing torque steer more then..but the car was new to me and its a while ago...

as for eating rubber, if your driving a t5 hard the consensus of people i have talk to say 10k is a good front tyre life...my 2.5 would seem to get maybe 18k out of a set of fronts...

Honestly my 850 has almost no torque steer and certainly in situations where the 940's wheels would be spinning and stepping sideways the 850 just seems to put the power down and go...(then again it does have wider softer tyres on it..an less power...)

I once knew of a place in the US that did sell them (MVP Volvo) but not anymore due to lack of interest. They didn't sell one. They might still be available in Europe BUT those may also be for a different trans.

Realize that for YOUR trans (FWD, Auto?), what's involved is a trans R&R and split trans case to R&R your current diff SO it will be VERY labor intensive and hardly a DIY job for those w/o alot of actual trans/diff knowledge and experience to do it right. To top it off, few shops will want to do a "custom" job like that being that there's a chance that things may not go smoothly (w/o further hassles). Few shops/techs care to do things like that UNLESS it's a shop that works on hotrods, custom auto installations.

I'd be happy to keep your present setup being that the only time the wheels slip anyway is on initial take-offs from a stop with full throttle (like racing) or on wet, slippery roads.

In my many years of FWD experience, I have yet to drive one FWD car with limited slip.

Actually Vic, MVP are the very people I intend on having do the work....I live about 3 miles from their shop. As for the LSD in a FWD car, the factory itself installed a viscous coupling LSD unit on all of the 5-speed equiped R specification cars. One wheel spin and torque steer are real problems in that particular piece.

There are some difficulties with retrofitting the VC LSD unit to an auto car, as the diff housing is specific to the R spec version of the M56 tranny, so if i'm going to be using a normal M56, I would have to source the R specific housing - Bleh. As a result, I'm looking into some of the aftermarket clutch pack type LSD units on the market, and was looking to see if anyone had anymore suggestions for potential sources.