Whats so good about locking your differentials??
 

Hey i read a thread about locking your differentials...now i know that 4-wheeling SUV's want that but why do you want that on your car??? Thanks

Locking a differential will change handling. A locked rear diff will allow the car to turn really sharp. A locked front diff will allow the car to pull hard (accelerate) in the turns and carry a lot of speed in the bigger sweeping turns. I would personally just leave these parts alone, but if you run on a track with a lot of tight turns, try locking the rear. If you run on a track with large sweeping turns you might try locking the front diff. If you only drag race, try locking both.

I locked my rear stock differential, and you can easily tell the difference. It has more even acceleration and, uh, stuff.

ummm how do lock a differential, and does it take speed away.

What would happen if i locked both differentials...would i handle better and accelrate batter??

if you lock just one differential in an AWD car with 2 gear differentials it will lock both differentials because there is no 3rd diff in the middle of the two. to lock them you could put superglue in them or put a very thick oil or something in.

instead of superglue would a hot glue gun work.

I used silly putty

where exactly are the front and rear differentials?

The diff is the red circle that connects the motor to the axle. It has gears on it and is on the axel. There is one on the back and front. Um. If it is stock then it would only have it on the back and it would be white. Thats all i can explain about it now.

so do i just put the grease or whatever i use in the hole on both sides?

ok i hot glued it and its accel sucks, it barly moves, and the reverse doesent work. i can pull the glue out but can someone post pics on how to do it.

heat, its easier to take it apart and superglue the gears together. i wouldn't reccomend doing this if you dont have AWD so you will have an extra differential if you screw one up. and you cant lock the Ball Differential/ Limited Slip Differential

dont use superglue. You can use some thick grease to semi lock the diff. Or you can use something like silly putty that is removeable.

anyone wanna get me a screenshot :P i have 2 differentials so that's not my concern. i just dunno where to put the grease and what not.

l
 

put it on the little blue gears

I locked my rear diff. and it sucked...the accelration was ungodly slow and i dont recommend doing it

im VERY happy with my locked diff ... i pdripped wax from a Bday candle into the larger gear with the smaller blue gears in it.... accel is GREAT top speed is FAST as all... plus it helped my right turns ..... its so fast its hard to keep straight

Thats wierd...i dripped wax froma candel in mine also and it sucked big time

man i got to get me some money so i can go out and buy me a few extra diffs and mod mine for drag sharp turns and sweep turns (but im a little confused on how to do this i no where to put the stuff im going with silly putty (my fav stuff) but what will it do for me cause i only got the rear diff for now):confused: oh yeah also i cant run my car (read civic on fire and that will explain)

A Limited-Slip Differential, also known as an LSD allows more torque to be put to the ground. With your stock differential if it senses that one side is losing traction it will try to correct it, do this, get your car in the air and accelerate, put your finger on one tire stopping it, the other tire will keep spinning and the one you stopped is just there, with no effort to move. On the other hand with an LSD both wheels will spin no matter what the conditions are, if you hold one wheel with an LSD both wheels will stop and try to keep moving forward. If I am wrong, please feel free to correct me. :)

oh ok i get it now , thanks for explaining it

Open /gear differential means that the power is transferred to ONE wheel. The wheels will spin in opposite directions when you spin one.
This HELPS in turning because as you turn, one wheel will go faster than the other, because the width of the car makes the wheels move in two diffrent radii.

Locked means that you no longer have any differential action at all. Turn one wheel and the other will spin with it, and the motor will too.
Power will be transferred to both wheels at all times. Therefore there is no slip, and one wheel will loose tractoin and make the rear end slide in a turn. In a real car it would make it hell to drive, and would wear out the axle, unless you don't turn, like drag racing. In a RC car with good acceleration and light weight, it makes the rear end slide out and skid around easy.


Limited slip means that you have some differential action, but the wheels will spin in the same direction when you turn one. sometimes only one wheel will spin and turn the motor, sometimes (depending on how tight it is) it will act like a fully locked diff.
With this set up (the ball diff) you get the benefits fo both. More torque is transferred to each wheel, but in turns, you still get power to both sides, even tho the wheels are turning at diffrent speeds. You also get the added benefit of slippage. This acts like a clutch, so that the motor's RPM's go up and stay up while the wheels take a while to catch up with the rest of the drivetrain. This causes a little lag in take off, but a much more powerfull launch.

Hopefully that's not too technical, but it is correct.
Which set up you want to use is up to how you drive, and obviously what you get to work.

and LSD isnt a locked differential. a locked differental has absolutely no slip or movement.

Lemme take a shot at explaining LSDs a little more indepth.

When you make a turn the wheel on the outside of the turn needs to turn faster then the inside wheel. An LSD wants to keep both wheels rotating at the same speed. There's a certain amount of friction inside the LSD that needs to be overcome to turn them at different speeds. The friction of the inside tire not wanting to slip transfers enough power inside the LSD to over come the LSDs resistance. The differential slips (ie the two wheels turn at different rates). This is good. You keep the car under control.

When you accelerate in a straight line one wheel is going to loose traction first. When it does you're dealing with a small friction difference between the two tires. This only transfers a little bit of force inside the LSD. The resistance inside the LSD to allow the wheels rotating a different speeds is stronger then this force. The wheels turn together. You get more traction. Everything is good.

The problem comes somewhere in between a turn and staight line acceleration. Say accelerating out of a turn. When you're coming out of a turn the outside wheel has more weight on it, so it has more traction. When you go to accelerate there's a bigger difference in friction between the wheels then if you where accelerating in a straight line. The resistance of the LSD to slip needs to be greater then this difference to keep the inside wheel from spinning and sending you into a bad oversteer condition. At the same time it needs to be less then the difference during a normal turn or the inside wheel will spin and you'll oversteer going into the turn.

If yuo are realy set on locing the diffs use JB weld. Note this is not reversable

Obviously if it says LIMITED SLIP, that means there is some slipping involved, locked means its locked, doesnt move at all.http://tearicon.com/club3gfl/html/emoticons/squint.gif http://tearicon.com/club3gfl/html/emoticons/screwy.gif

hmm i am not sure if i want to do this i will just leave it alone.... i hope

ok i was driving my civic when i noticed it was studering and pulling to the right some i adjusted my trim but it still goes right i switched out the tie rod with another stock one and it still pulls and it still studders could something be messed up with my lsd cause i no its not the electronics (itss a BRAND NEW chasie)

lol...
 

that is so wrong...BOTH diffs are independent of each other...locking one will NOT lock both....unless you have a magic x mod...dont believe me...lock the rear one and grab the left or right front tire....spin it...and see the other tire go backwards...

and you are wrong too...
 

locking the rear diff will NOT make it turn sharper UNLESS you are driving on a very slick surface...and then its called spinning out...the whole reason behind a differential is to let it corner sharper and smoother...otherwise the inside tire chirps when turning sharp...(IE loses traction)

yea im almost positive that Kingcobra is correct on this. I locked my rear diff. and i couldn't even turn it becasue every time i would turn the wheel...it would do a complete 180. I then tried locking front and rear. That was good fro straight-a-ways but almost stopped going around turns. If you have AWD i recommend switching the diffs. Put the ball diff. up front and the other red diff. in the rear. I got really good accel. and cornering with that setup...plus doing this would screw up any of your diffs

sorry about that i just asked my dad and was corrected with an hour long spiel on how a drivetrain works. (sometimes it sucks to have a 53 yr old dad thats been working on cars since he was 18
)

how do i take out the pin for the differential in the evo

bengali548,

This thread is over 3 years old! You don't have to feel like you need post in an old thread...Just go ahead and start a new thread with your question.

I'm going to lock this thread now, no need to resurrect old things.