What are the years of vitara that have the steel housing?  I want to keep a lazy eye out for one for my 03 tracker

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

So only the v6 stick shifters got them?

The diesel engine variants also got them - but those weren't sold stateside.

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

My 06 XL7 has a steel diff, with and electric motor for locking in the 4X.

Quote from: beagle..t on April 27, 2018, 06:56:40 PM

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

My 06 XL7 has a steel diff, with and electric motor for locking in the 4X.

So can it be welded-out like my air actuated carrier? I have locking hubs so don’t need any electrics.  Also, is your xl7 an auto or stick?

Quote from: beagle..t on April 27, 2018, 06:56:40 PM

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

My 06 XL7 has a steel diff, with and electric motor for locking in the 4X.

different mounting brackets
 

Quote from: BRD HNTR on April 29, 2018, 02:18:01 PM

Quote from: beagle..t on April 27, 2018, 06:56:40 PM

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

My 06 XL7 has a steel diff, with and electric motor for locking in the 4X.

different mounting brackets

ah yes I remember that now, from your mod I believe.  Going to look at one from 03 tomorrow, wish me luck.

Cool that didn’t take long!  Found one for 100$ complete out of an 02 xl7.  So from my research this has a 4.30:1 ratio?  So I’ll get to swap gears which will slow the swap considerably, but no big deal since my aluminum diff is not blown up, I should have all the parts I need.   May throw new seals in. 

So comparing to my alloy unit there is the apparent difference of the mounting ear on the input section bolting on radially instead of longitudinally.  What’s the hot way to address this?  Will the rubber isolator bolt to the cross member fine as-is? Or do I drill holes in the carrier?

Also the three bolts vs 4 on the drivers side tube but that’s no big deal looks like.  Hopefully that mount isolator isn’t different than the one I have.  It was sitting there in the donor but I didn’t take it.

Also, if I wanted to put new axle seals in where is the best price on those?  With 250k on the clock I’m guessing they need replacing.  Are the seals for the aluminum housing the same part?

Man I’m hitting a snag on this installation.  Put the new axle in and all was going well until I tried t bolt in the rear rubber isolator.  The mounting hits the oil pan.  No big deal I cut the corner off it and tried again but it’s still very tight and even the cast ear on the carrier is dangerously close to hitting the pan.  If I could hammer the oil pan in a few select places that would do it but with the cross member there it’s kimda hard to get any leverage. 

Well with much fussing I got it in there.  Ended up doing some custom grinding of the rear mount and the housing with a die grinder, and also raised the engine with washers about 3/16” for clearance.  Not ideal but that’s what we did. 

Shake down today went very well. Gears seem happy and the zook did great only scared me once when I let the front end dip into a ditch backing up and felt like it could have flopped over,  so cranked the wheel and jammed the gas in reverse and we popped right out. 
The car seemed to run better with the diff lol.  Maybe the extra weight in front helped smooth the suspension. 

Here you can see how tight it is to oil pan.  This is after some custom grinding and a 3/16” lift spacer on both engine mounts. 

Quote from: BRD HNTR on April 29, 2018, 02:18:01 PM

Quote from: beagle..t on April 27, 2018, 06:56:40 PM

99-04 grand vitara v6 5 speed and yes some xl-7 have them too

My 06 XL7 has a steel diff, with and electric motor for locking in the 4X.

So can it be welded-out like my air actuated carrier? I have locking hubs so don’t need any electrics.  Also, is your xl7 an auto or stick?

I haven't been inside it, but it has a motor that runs forward or backward to lock/unlock.  I am still going to run my converted Samurai diff, as it is already set up for my rig.  The 06 has an electrical motor that runs foreword/backward for selection of engagement.  I am using a 5 ohm power resister to fool computer into thinking it has changed directions, allowing it to shift transfer case.