How Do Differentials Work?

A differential is the gadget that separates the torque of the engine in two ways so that each output can spin at a different speed

. You can usually find this in a lot of all-wheel-drive & full four-wheel-drive cars today.

Youre probably thinking, Well why do I need this on my car? Technically speaking, all of the wheels on your car spin at different speeds. Lets say youre making a right turn at a light; the inside wheels (the ones closest to the curb) have a much less shorter distance to travel than the ones on the opposite side. See what Im saying? The formula to calculate speed is the distance that is traveled divided by the time it takes to travel that distance. If you happen to have either Rear-Wheel-Drive or Front-Wheel-Drive, then you dont have to worry about it. Since they spin independently, there is no connection between them.

The wheels that are driven are connected: the engine & the transmission can spin both wheels at the same time. If your car doesnt have differentials, this would cause for the wheels that are driven to be locked together. This means the wheels would have to spin at the same time, causing you to have difficulties when you turn into driveways, corners, et cetera.

The most common differential is called the open differential. Theres a lot of terminology to learn, so Im just going to try to explain it while I go on. Ready? Pretend youre just driving straight with no where else to turn, both of your drive wheels are obviously rotating at the same speed, right? Theres something called the Input Pinion that is spinning the cage & the ring gear. This pinion is smaller than the ring gear & the cage, which means its the only gear reduction in your vehicle. When youre wheel needs to make a turn, the pinion gears start moving in the cage whereas when youre going straight, the pinions moves with the case.

Even though the wheels may be spinning at different speeds, the open differential never hesitates to apply the same amount of torque to each individual wheel. When youre driving in dry conditions where the traction is abundant, the quantity of torque applied is restricted by the engine & gearing in the vehicle; but when youre driving in the mountains, in the snow, or in climates like that, the torque will give just enough quantity so that your wheels wont end up slipping. So say youre driving on thin ice (hopefully youre not), youre going to want to start in either second or third gear so that the gearing in your transmission will limit the amount of torque available to your vehicles. Even when youre going off-roading, youre differentials may cause you some trouble. When you have a truck thats four-wheel-drive with an open differential in the front and the back, you can get stuck. To me, its pretty funny; but it may not be so funny when Im in that situation. See, when youre going off of those cliffs & one of the back tires comes off the ground, they will keep on spinning in the air so you really wont be able to stop...

There is something called LSD (Limited Slip Differential), or positraction, that works by giving more torque to the non-slipping wheel; that way, youll be perfectly fine when you go off-roading.

So hopefully this broadens your knowledge on Differentials. If it didnt, sorry; but you can check out OriginalWheels.com for all of your little wheel needs.

by: Mykalanne Gutierrez

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