Hi all, newbie here from the UK, we've got a VW-based buggy running a UN5 transaxle, and have been desperately searching for a LSD in the quest for more traction.
Unfortunately the only thing we've found so far is a quaiffe ATB unit, which we're not keen on for off road use, I'd prefer a plate setup.

Anyway, I thought I'd seek out you lot down under in the hope that there was a solution somewhere, as every time I go hunting for a UN5 for spares these days all I get is:

"Sorry mate, some Australian bloke from Albins came around with a van and bought all the ones we had for the casings..."

then you want to contact these guys;
http://www.albinsgear.com.au/

I've been in touch, sounds like they're planning to stock the quaiffe setups but couldn't help with a plate diff,

Go overseas. Oz is small in it's VW scene and the UK and USA may be more forth coming with any inside knowledge

USA don't tend to use 'em, and there's only us using them over here in the UK.
French use them a lot but their courses are a lot drier and faster so they get away with just using the quaiffe atb.

Why not try just shimming up your stock diff tighter

'Cause it won't have much effect bar destroying the diff at high rpms...

I am not sure how far you budget extends,
but Guard Transmissions in the USA make both clutch type, and torque biasing diffs for Porsche,
so could easily adapt the internls into a carrier that will fit your ring gear.

Albins here could do the same, possiby using a GM or Ford clutch pack...or what ever you find!

It's a bit of a scrapyard build so we were hoping to find an off the shelf one - I can have one built specially over here but it'd be about $2000...

You could try the Aussie French car forums, Renault section?

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13

Cheers,

Right, I've bit the bullet and got Gripper in the UK to adapt their UN1 diff to fit, I've supplied them with a gearbox for working from, however, if anyone knows someone running the Renault in a rail /buggy/etc and wanting a plate diff, we need some more people to make it commercially viable for them, albins might be interested in a few and there's a few french cars from the rallyes tt showing an interest so were getting there...

What about the converted Subie gearboxes you can get now? Will they do the job?

Interestingly I just picked up a used plated LSD diff for my reversed Subie box today ... and it's much less than $2000 !!! Also have a torsen LSD diff centre for Subie box as well that I purchased a few weeks ago.

Going to test both of them in our new turbo test box and see what we think. Road use and sand use. This way we'll have real-world data on how well they work in different terrain.
I suspect that Torsen will be preferred for mostly road work and clutch type for mostly sand work. Both are available as factory or aftermarket items, around $1300 new.

Anyway, good luck with your UN5 setup, I hope you get what you need.