limited slip differential

Yeah, it's a good thing. It shifts some power to the tire with more traction when the rear tires have unequal traction. Otherwise, with an open differential, if you say had one rear tire on an ice patch, and one on dry pavement, an open differential will literally send all the power to the wheel with NO traction and you'll sit there spinning...

However the Jeep Traklock is nothing to get too excited about. It's clutch-based and will wear out. But it'll last 60 or 80K miles and that's probably about when most people who buy new cars sell 'em anyway (wouldn't know )...

-jeff

But if your are driving in full time 4wd, would that situation occur to begin with? Sorry for not completely understanding. I understand what the effect of lsd does on a rear or front wheel drive, but how does it effect a jeep using part time or full time four wheel drive?

Much regards Jerry

It affects it less, Jerry, but you have to agree that the more tires you have with traction, the better.

One thing a limited slip differential does 'not' do is shift power to one side or the other. All it does is couple the spinning side to the non-spinning side a little via its clutch pack so the resistance of the tire with better traction allows more torque to be sent to both tires. Both tires always, always, ALWAYS see exactly 50% of the torque sent to the rear axle by the engine. It's just that when one tire starts spinning on an open differential, the engine only sees the resistance of the spinning tire so it develops very little torque and thus very little torque gets provided to the tire that still has good traction. The more resistance the engine sees, the more torque it develops... so when the LSD couples the spinning tire to the tire that is not spinning, it sees more resistance and thus develops more torque... which gives the tire with more traction more power so it gets you going again. This is why stepping on the brakes a little when you're stuck, or pulling the parking brake on a little if it's a rear tire that is spinning, will often get you moving again since it provides more resistance for the engine to work into which raises the amount of torque being sent to both tires.

So when one tire is spinning, it's not that the differential is sending "all" of the power to the spinning tire... it's really sending a 50:50 split to both sides... but with one tire spinning, the engine sees so little resistance that very little torque is developed and when that very little torque is split 50:50 to both sides, the side with traction isn't getting enough torque to move the vehicle... thus you're stuck.

The fact that both tires always see 50% of the 'available' torque, no matter if it's equipped with a locker, LSD, or just an open axle is the hardest thing for most people to understand. It's just how much torque is really available to those tires that determine if you're going to be able to move or not. :)

Jerry

Why doesn't the ABS see the spinning tire and try to slow it down by applying that tire's brake?

That would be "traction control".

JoBo

ABS doesn't apply brakes, it releases them when it senses a wheel has stopped spinning from a brake that is locked up. There are other systems that sense spinning tires and apply the brake to the offending wheel but they are not ABS systems.

Jerry