locker

JJMclure · Post by **JJMclure** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:58 pm

I have heard some nasty stories about spools in live axles but has anyone run a detroit locker on the street in the uk? I've heard they make an awful noise when they corner. I did think about asking this on a 'merican forum but their interpretation of street use is a bit different to ours I feel!

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 12:04 pm

Hi
Is this what I would know as a pawel type locking differential, where the thing is either locked solid or open, you use springs and ramp arrangment to decide at what level of torque put into it locks it up? if so they used to be marketed for minis as Jack Knight diffs, I knew a couple of people with them in road going ralley Minis. . . they sounded like someone had emptied a bag of old scrap into the gearbox, the racket was seriously loud, both cars had straight cut drop gears and still the racket from the diff overwhelmed everything else. They were excellent for outright traction under hard acceleration and when you got used to them and adapted your driving style you could "select" between open diff and solid axel as you went into a corner. Both cars had big steering wheels with thick rims you had to hold on and make big inputs on tarmac they made the car very physical to drive, it lept from side to side over bumps with the diff locked. I imagine one in the back end of a car would not be much different in charictor, probably a lot less dramatic but on tarmac twitchy and would need commitment to get it to turn in. they have reputation for being un-brakable
Best regards
Mike

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:27 pm

I drove with a spool in mine for a few months.

Never ever will I have such a piece of poop near my car. That also includes any sort of locking rear end.

It was horrific at low speed manoeuvres, it will understeer like mad and it will scrub front tyres like mad. And in general the car just drives like crap ( and they're also illegal )

Other than them being cheap and looking nice, I cannot think of anything positive to say about them

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 5:57 pm

Locking diffs are perfectly Legal.
Mike

stevieturbo · Post by **stevieturbo** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 6:01 pm

kiwicar wrote:Locking diffs are perfectly Legal.
Mike

A locking diff might just be ok.

A spool or totally locked diff is not. It will be an immediate MOT fail here, and cops were stopping some messers in rwd cars all over the place and checking them here among other things.