So here I am, over-thinking things as usual. Please someone chime in and either tell me if I'm right or if I'm an idiot. I took my OBX apart and I'm a bit confused as to what I'm looking at here. I confirmed that when the diff is in use, the two large side gears are supposed to be forced outward, away from the belleville washers.
Here's a view of the guts in my OBX, basically as viewed from the driver's seat with the transmission installed:
Looking at the gears and the way the helix is cut on each of them, applying rotation to the case and resistance to the large gear visible in the picture would result in that gear being drawn inward, not outward as it's supposed to be. Ok, so I'll switch the gears left to right and that should solve the problem. I found out quickly that it's impossible to do. Below are the two large side gears that the axles engage with. Passenger side gear is on the left. Driver side gear is on the right.
Ok, they're two different sizes. If I put the small gear on the passenger side...
...followed by the piece where the thrust washers drop into...
...followed by the larger of the two gears...
...the larger gear interferes with the small helical gears:
So the only way that the gears can go in is like this (again, as viewed from the driver's seat with the transmission installed). This results in the gears being drawn inward under torque:
Now to test your eyes. Take a look at this picture (this picture belongs to Rich Bryant and is on his OBX rebuild page):
It may be hard to see, but compare the above picture to the first picture in this post. The gears are cut in opposite directions! Am I doomed here? Do I just have to deal with it? I can't flip my gears so they face the way they do in the above picture.
My differential is modified, but only the holes where the ring gear bolts to. I don't know if that's enough to void my warranty. If you've made it this far through this post, I sincerely thank you for your time.
Any ideas?