Ball diff - Less Balls?

[Essex2Visuvesi]

I recently picked up a resto project from ebay (F201) and upon dismantling we found that the Ball diffs at the front and rear were both missing balls :o

there are 10 holes in the gear for balls and yet only 5 actually contain balls. The instructions show 10 balls.

Are there any reasons/advantages to running less balls?

[sosidge]

It will make the ball diff tighter and rougher (but only by a very small amount). Not something I would ever do intentionally myself but the previous owner may have had a reason. Or they may have just dropped half the balls when building it.

[Essex2Visuvesi]

Cheers for that, was trying to figure out the reasoning..... We'll rebuild with the full compliment of balls

As they say in tennis...... "New Balls Please!" :)

[SlowOne]

Good call. The more balls the less end load needed to create the friction required to transmit the power. It's been tried a lot in 12th, but as only one visit to our better diff-building drivers soon convinces anyone, a diff with a full compliment of round things as designed will give the best transmission of power and diff action. HTH :)

[Welshy40]

Possible it was a back up car and only had enough balls for a complete diff so half in each would be adequate for one event.