AE86 - The LSD and Crown Wheel Pinion approach

Hi there,

This week i’ll bring you everything i know about LSDs and CWP for the AE86.
An issue that is discussed everywhere on the web and much information is available… Still some of you may not know actually what is there for us and our machines.

I’ll split the topic between the LSD and the CWP.

LSD

There are many ways to distinguish the AE86 LSDs.
The first thing you will notice when talking about LSDs are the words Zenki or Kouki.

Those words mean, like i’ve written in my last article, the first version and second version of the AE86 model.
The difference between the Zenki and Kouki is the size of the halfshafts.

left image – zenki halfshaft size
right image – kouki halfshaft size

As you may noticed the Kouki halfshaft is bigger than the Zenki one. So when buying your LSD you must make sure you are buying the correct LSD for you car.

The second thing about the AE86 LSDs is the “way”. You may notice that there are references to 1way, 2way and 1.5way.
What does that mean? Plain simple, is how the LSDs behaves when you’re driving your car.

Check the image below.

Notice how the forces work on the different verions of LSDs when you have the throttle on and off.
You have many videos on the web explaining this locking system.

Joining the LSDs we have the CWP.

CWP
The Crown Wheel Pinion is also known as final gear. The original final gear ratio that came on the AE86 is the 4.33.

The AE86 that came with the 4A-C had the 4.10 final gear ratio.

With the evolution of the model into competition and drift, there were made mode ratios as the next table shows.

Final Gear Ratio	Toyota Part Numbers
3.308	41201-29406
3.583	41201-29287
3.727	41201-29227
3.909	41201-29237
4.100	41201-29197
4.300	41201-29207
4.556	41201-29626
4.778	41201-29637

What do the final gear values mean?

The CWP values you read on the web actually mean the amount of teeth the drive has.

For example, the 4.556 has 41 teeth in the crown and 9 teeth in the pinion.

When buying a new final gear, you must first make sure what you want to use it for with the AE86. If you need a track car, the 4.778 must the best choice, if you want a full OEM AE86 the 4.300 (the original one) is the one to pick, but what if you have an ultra swapped car?!

Wheel the shorter gear ratios, that actually means that they are the longest ones and those are the ones you may want for a 4AGZE for example.

About me, i personally think that the 4.556 is the best option between an occasional track car and daily one. It is a bit shorter than the original but not so short that it may sound like a rally car.