legacycentral bbs

It seems I may have to soon find a replacement gear set for my Euro '92 Legacy 2.0 Turbo (80k miles). Per spec sheets it seems it has a quite rare 3.545 G/R V-LSD R160 differential (27011AA230).

Is my best bet to try to find that same differential on junkyards (I can see one online with 200k miles, haven't yet started calling other places for more though) and hope they have OK-condition gears to cannibalize, or are there maybe some more common models with interchangeable pinion & crown gears?
I know you didn't have this model at all in the U.S., but it wasn't too common here either, so exactly matching differentials are not very plentiful...

I haven't yet had the repair shop open the differential to confirm that it is the gears that need replacement, though, but I guess that it is likely (they said it was clearly loose and heard some noise).

(I know very little of this stuff, everything I know I basically googled today , so please bear with me if I talk nonsense)

The US WRX's (in 2002) had a final drive ratio of 3.9, however they had a 1:1.1 final reduction gear in the transmission that made the rear diff gear ratio to be 3.545. If the European WRX's of the same era are the same I would look at using one of them.

You'll probably have to do some homework to find out if the European models had the same 1:1.1 gear reduction and resulting 3.545 rear diff. But I think that is your best bet.

OK, thanks, will take a look at WRXs.

Are the R160 pinion & crown gears usually compatible with each other as long as G/R matches, or are there differences?

(BTW, my Legacy has the final drive ratio of 3.9 and 1:1.1 gear reduction as well)

Anssi wrote:Are the R160 pinion & crown gears usually compatible with each other as long as G/R matches, or are there differences?

That I do not know. Hopefully someone else can provide you some feedback.

Datsun guys tend to do a lot dealig with swapping R160s between Nissans and Subarus from the 70s to present, and they also dabble in things like swapping LSD sections and R&Ps between cases. A 510 or early Z car forum may have some folks who know more about which year R160s have interchangeable internals.