Did something bad to my differential back in Oct so I put the Vette under a cover and tucked it away for the winter. Since the snow has melted I've ordered a stage 4 diff from RPM and managed to get it installed thanks in large part to the write up by cajundude and this forum.

The whole process was pretty straight forward and much easier than I anticipated. It also helps that the 3.42 which died had only been in the car about 15k miles. I decided to go with 3.73 this time and had to make a few adjustments to the shift tables etc as I have an A4 but overall it was a pleasant experience. I've only gone for one break-in heat cycle drive so far but no leaks and nothing fell off. I'm going to take it out for another cycle as soon as the rain dries up so it's going to be a bit before I can really try the new gears out but I have a feeling I'm going to like them. I should also mention that dealing with RPM Transmissions was great and I would gladly do it again.

Old Diff


This came out pretty easy.




Harbor Freight scissor jack!


New Diff!




Again with the scissor jack.


All cleaned up and ready to reassemble.


I installed some new ARP wheel studs.


Almost there!




Don't panic, the ramp on the drivers side is facing the other way. It tried to roll off the ramps one time when I was lowering the rear so I do it this way now.

While I had everything pulled out for the swap I got extremely lucky and found someone who could weld a bypass in to my Ti exhaust. I've been wanting to do this for a very long time and am even happier with the result than I thought I would be.






I was going to paint my tips black but once I scuffed them up I really liked the satin look so I'm going to roll with that for a while and put more thought in to black tips.





Video doesn't do it justice and it's not really louder at idle or cruise but it is deeper with more growl. I haven't really got on it yet due to breaking in the gears but so far it gets me excited.




Going to be a good summer!

 

Yeah, the by-pass mod is sweet. I had it on my car for a few years. Nice swap, and it's not as hard as it might seem to swap the differential.

 

Nice job you did on the differential swap - the 3.73s should be a good change. And the bypass mod has to make the exhaust sound much better.

 

^^^^ what he said here. car sounds great man.

 

Let me know how you enjoy the 3.73's with the A4 - especially on the highway! Curious on your opinion, coming from a A4 owner!

Plus have you already had the PCM set for the 3.73's over the 3.42's?

Looks really good and nice job as well as pics!

Thanks,Matt

 

Nice work! I noticed the little "QUAIFE" tag was punched too.

Those look like some sweet welds on your bypass tubes. Not everyone can handle welding Ti.

I like your license plate. Was BITEME already taken?

 

Thanks everyone for the nice comments

Yes the PCM has been adjusted for the new gears and I've only had it up to 60 but first impression was that it felt like the car was ready to pounce.

LOL, I never thought about that until my wife said something when I got the plate last year, Munch was my dog.