Long story short. Blew my diff at the track. Bought an ITR LSD for it, since the only thing wrong was the diff. I cleaned out all of the shavings and pieces from the case, and also (the diff gears that broke actually tore tranny casing out of the diff housing. There were two or three fins around the diff/ring gear that got obliterated.)

1. Is there a necessity to having these aluminum 'fins' in there? Do they stabalize the diff or something?

Rebuilt the tranny. My friends dad (whose shop I'm using to do all the work) wanted the car out tonight. I was busy with college, so he and his son did the work to put the tranny back in. Before I got to check preload or anything. The tranny input shaft didn't spin all that smoothly like it used to. There was definately some friction in it. But it could have been smoother.

2. Would this friction in the input shaft have anything to do with the diff's preload?

So. We took it out for a spin. No noise in 1st through 3rd. In 4th and 5th... you can hear plenty of rubbing/abrasion/'whirring' when in gear off the throttle. Like... it is fine accelerating in those gears... but once you let the gas off... it starts whirring on deceleration.

3. What would cause this? I should pull it again and try and fix it, right?

And when planting the throttle, it torque steered like mad two of the three times I laid into it. First time, it tracked straight and smooth as could be in 1st gear. Then... took it onto a nearby road, planted the throttle in 1st and it jerked hard to the left. Smacked second, less wheelspin than ever, but then pulled hard to the right. I thought LSD eliminates this.

Well, any help would be appreciated. I know this was a pretty long post. Thanks!
Shaun

 

3. Perhaps this 'whirring' is an input (main) shaft bearing. Is that a possibility.

 

Still no one?

 

Never found out what the whirring was. Just bought another tranny. The pulling to the right was wheel bearing. All fixed. But now pennyless.