Ok, I have seen the best and worst front differentials... The ebst is when... well all the gears have next to no wear and the bearings have always been properly lubricated... The worst can come in a couple different ways
First front diff explosion I dealt with was on my FWD 94... the 1st SVX I ever had and worked on... The diff seals on the trans went to crap before O bought the car and as soon as I bought it I check and changed all the fluids... The moaning front diff made sense and not 10k later the front diff bit the dust for good. When the gears in the front diff are worn to be razor like edges it is because A) the gears were not set properly during installation B) there was no oil and the bearing went to crap and lost the placement of the gears and ground them to dust
Second was the cracked case... Seems to be that some of the aluminum diff cases have weak points in their casting and the torque of the EG33 can break them and cause a crack which can lead to gear misalignment or just total case failure in which it just breaks
third is when Harvey is leading to.. When one wheels spins faster than the other... This will lead to excessive spider gear wear in which the carrier (holds the ring gear) case gets chewed up and the spider gears begin to get toasted... This is when someone decides to leave their FWD fuse in and do burnouts or FWD models just do burnouts... Without LSD the carrier will allow all the power and torque to go to one wheel.
The transfer clutches on older cars get soft and slow to react... This means, the solenoid and transfer valve are all working properly but the clutches slip a little before full engagement. This means, there is no slamming of the driveline just a smooth kick from the rear wheels, this for sure will not shere the transfer drum off. Binding will do this or like LAN experienced with 12psi of boost, pure power will do this too...
I hope this clears up and discrepency with the AWD slow to react
BTW you should all switch to 5mt's... no more of that 90/10 torque split
Tom