Diff query.

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speed
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Diff query.

Postby speed » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:36 pm

I thought I had an open diff but now I'm not sure.

Dome of you may be aware that I've recently put my car back on the road and had it tuned.

My garage has a stretch of lawn between my garage. The original driveway strips are adjacent to the garage, so basically I have an uphill patch of grass in between garage and driveway.

The last two nights my car has spun a wheel fighting for traction.
The weird thing is that sometimes it spins the left wheel and sometime it spins the right.

Is this normal for an open diff?
I thought that it would always just spin one side.

I will.be fitting a torsen when I get to it but am curious as to what is happening here.

Thank you all.

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Cus
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Re: Diff query.

Postby Cus » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:47 pm

It will spin whichever wheel has the least amount of traction.

The 1.6 open I just took out of little red would lay down 11's on dirt, all day, every day. The owner of the drieway where this regularly took place wasn't half as impressed as I was. As soon as one side had more grip, it would just spin the opposite wheel.

Put one wheel on the grass and one on the driveway, and give it a little stomp. You'll dig up the grass and not move if it's an open, or if it's an LSD you'll dig up grass and lay down a skid on the concrete. But not a big stomp, I've always understood "mixed traction" burnouts like that are a good way to break things.

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Cus
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Re: Diff query.

Postby Cus » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:48 pm



This guy explains it pretty well.

Edit: no, that's a really "heavy" video. Just watch all of his diff videos, eventually it'll make sense haha
Last edited by Cus on Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

speed
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Re: Diff query.

Postby speed » Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:52 pm

Got it. Thanks for that.
How are finding the torsen in the wet?

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Cus
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Re: Diff query.

Postby Cus » Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:00 am

speed wrote:Got it. Thanks for that.
How are finding the torsen in the wet?

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I'm still open, just with 1.8 everything, awaiting a cheap centre to come along.

With all of my 1.6L litres of N/A P-O-W-E-R, I find the open ... a non-issue haha I've only had one drive-drive in the wet though, and that was the great ocean road and that was pretty "clean" (smooth, no oil and stuff) so had exactly no issues.

speed
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Re: Diff query.

Postby speed » Sat Mar 04, 2017 12:04 am

Haha. Well if I see a cheap centre I'll be sure to let you know :)

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StanTheMan
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Re: Diff query.

Postby StanTheMan » Sun Mar 05, 2017 5:02 pm

In the wet the my Torsen looses traction around round about quite easy. But it's also super easy to control.

Giving it some stick along the straight it also tend to loose traction in the wet and a vey silly idea when going reasonable speed at 5000 rpm
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speed
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Re: RE: Re: Diff query.

Postby speed » Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:46 pm

StanTheMan wrote:In the wet the my Torsen looses traction around round about quite easy. But it's also super easy to control.

Giving it some stick along the straight it also tend to loose traction in the wet and a vey silly idea when going reasonable speed at 5000 rpm

That's shocked me a little, especially consider where my power is in the Rev range. I guess whatever short comings it has in the wet is made up for in the dry?

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smy0003
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Re: Diff query.

Postby smy0003 » Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:39 pm

I never got round to putting a Torsen in. I was running 195 section re003s and didn't have an issue wet or dry. They really are great tyres.
On a wet grass surface you might find a Doreen to still spin one wheel. A clutch pack diff wouldn't but that's a bit extreme for a road car.

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StanTheMan
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Re: RE: Re: Diff query.

Postby StanTheMan » Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:45 pm

speed wrote:
StanTheMan wrote:In the wet the my Torsen looses traction around round about quite easy. But it's also super easy to control.

Giving it some stick along the straight it also tend to loose traction in the wet and a vey silly idea when going reasonable speed at 5000 rpm

That's shocked me a little, especially consider where my power is in the Rev range. I guess whatever short comings it has in the wet is made up for in the dry?

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Let be brutally clear about this
I need it to be wet to be able to do that. You don't.
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speed
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Re: Diff query.

Postby speed » Sun Mar 05, 2017 9:01 pm

Thanks Smy and Stan.
Will be a while until I get to fitting the torsen, I just want to drive and drive and drive. With the weather the way it's been I've not been able to do that this weekend.
I'm still running the 4.3, so with the 4.1 it should be a little better for my needs. I know there's not much between them but every bit counts right :)

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