Limited Slip Diff

[Guest djs dad]

forgive my ignorance but, having just swapped from the world of offroading to kit cars my question is about lsd's.

when offroading, the lsd is highly prised for the additional grip and drive you get offroad, mainly in the mud.

in my experiance however, on-road, the lsd can give the vehicle a nervous feeling to the rear end (this is of course on mud tyres.)

so...what advantage does running an lsd in a hood give?

 

thanks

 

kev

[Guest gixerboy600]

Hi Kev,

 

My understanding is that it would make the back end lively, i,e sideways everywhere!!!!!

 

Depends on what you want I guess

 

Cheers

 

John

[Guest chris brown]

It makes the back end much more predictable and the inner wheel doesn’t spin especially in the wet on roundabouts, where mine used to every time prior to fitting the LSD. I wouldn’t be without it now but I do know others who don’t like them.

[Shaft]

forgive my ignorance but, having just swapped from the world of offroading to kit cars my question is about lsd's.

when offroading, the lsd is highly prised for the additional grip and drive you get offroad, mainly in the mud.

in my experiance however, on-road, the lsd can give the vehicle a nervous feeling to the rear end (this is of course on mud tyres.)

so...what advantage does running an lsd in a hood give?

 

thanks

 

kev

 

Hi Kev,

 

Where / what did you off road mate?? i'm from the world of CCV & Comp Safari.

Just sold my Bowler Tomcat to finance my Zero build.

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

[Guest djs dad]

mainly the world of suzuki. as i live in wales (llangollen), i mainly went green laning. loved it but wasnt getting out enough plus its getting quite political.

so, suzuki went (to france) and the 3a project arrived.

[Guest dinger]

Without a limited slip diff the wheel that is not weighted, (usually then inside wheel on a corner) will start to spin under power, if too much power is applied then this wheel will keep spinning and you wont have much drive out of a corner, Even in a straight line one wheel can spin,

At anytime mid corner with the power planted the other wheel may start to spin aswell, Who knows when and make the car very unpredictable,

 

A limited slip diff will transfer the power to the weighted wheel when the un weighted wheel starts to spin giving you much better drive out of a corner or a standing start, its much more predictable as you can feel the back end starting to lose grip progressively.

 

 

A well set up car without LSD is still driveable as the weight shouldnt shift as much,

 

Hope that helps

[Guest djs dad]

yes it does dinger.

best start looking for 1 then!

[Shaft]

mainly the world of suzuki. as i live in wales (llangollen), i mainly went green laning. loved it but wasnt getting out enough plus its getting quite political.

so, suzuki went (to france) and the 3a project arrived.

 

 

Llangollen, i remember it well.

Raced a few times up in the old slate quarry. Is that cafe still there, the one right up the mountain?

 

Nick.

[Guest djs dad]

yup, the ponderosa.

[speedtripledan]

If i could find an lsd at reasonable price in good condition i would fit one tomorrow.

[ibrooks]

Are you sure you've been driving a Limited Slip Diff in the off-roaders and not a locking diff (either manual or auto-locking)?

 

Some time ago I remember reading about a bunch of Jag guys who had discovered that the locking diffs from some 4x4 would fit their diffs (some variant of a Salisbury axle I think) and they were far cheaper than the limited slip diffs the rest of their track-day friends had. So a few of them bought these things and fitted them - only to find on the next trackday that their cars had developed a tendancy to spit them out of corners pointing backwards. The auto-locking diffs simply locked up and ceased to be a differential when more than a certain amount of speed difference built up between the rear wheels and this instant snatch just made the things un-driveable.

 

An LSD is much more progressive in action and very seldom actually gets into a completely locked situation. Even if the vehicles you've driven were running slippers rather than lockers I would expect their characteristics to be very different to one designed for primarily on-road use.

 

Iain

[Guest djs dad]

run both a traditional lsd and a locker so quite sure.

lsd's work really well off road actually, just the expense is prohibitive (as well as availability)

[Guest oshiney2]

have a cosworth lsd on my 2b plus fantastic on round abouts especiallyif someone is trying to race you if you know what i mean bbyyyeeeeeeeee

[agent_zed]

Don't know anything first hand about lsd's but was reading the Donkervoort website a couple of days ago and they said tehy used a 40% lsd? not sure what the sierra one is, or whether its better if its higher or lower, anyone know?

 

also with the sierra lsd's i believe they use oil to control the slipping? can this be changed to alter the rate of slip? as i think someone on a post ages ago queried whether the seirra one would work correctly as it was designed for a bigger car.

 

as i say this is just things ive come across that i'd be interested to know if they are correct.

[Grim]

it is possible to get them re-rated, a complete diff dismantle job though!

 

http://www.gearboxman.co.uk/psdiffsgearboxman.html