On Tuesday, February 17, 1998 2:11 PM, robert weeks [SMTP:robert@woozy.com]
wrote:
<SNIP>
>I figure I fried the differential or
> I snapped an axel. But then again if I snapped an axel, shouldn't one
> wheel still spin??
Nope. Not unless you've got the "spiders" in the diff welded up. A
differential is designed to allow the rear wheels to turn at different
rates (to allow for the outside wheel on a turn to roll over a greater
distance than the inside wheel). A snapped axle shaft removes any
resistance to that side of the diff spinning like mad, while the other side
just sits there.
Non-LBC content, but helpful in explaining. A friend had an axle shaft on
a front-wheel drive S*b*ru come loose from the wheel (actually the splines
sheared off at the wheel end). We clamped the biggest vice-grip we could
find to the axle on that side so that it rested against a frame rail
(freezing that side of the differential), and limped it to my garage that
way (with the differential putting all the power to the opposite side front
wheel).
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