Locking differential

hdavis

New member
Mar 13, 1998
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A while back someone posted that they were looking into a transmission mod
that would permit selectively locking the front wheels to aid in traction.
Anybody own up to it? I'd like to find out what the possibilities are.

Also, has anybody installed real ABS (not brak guard)?

Henry

Henry Davis Consulting, Inc / new product consulting
PO Box 1270 / product readiness reviews
Soquel, Ca 95073 / IP reviews
ph: (831) 462-5199 / full service marketing
fax: (831) 462-5198
http://www.henry-davis.com/ http://www.henry-davis.com
 
>A while back someone posted that they were looking into a transmission mod
>that would permit selectively locking the front wheels to aid in traction.
>Anybody own up to it? I'd like to find out what the possibilities are.

From Archives - 2-23-99:
I ran across a Toronado owner interested in installing an ARB locker.

ARB might consider a special production run if there is enough interest.

This guy is trying to locate other interested Toro owners and asked me to
check with GMCMH owners.

This is an off road system and reputed to be very strong but I have no
experience with it.

ARB is a manual system totally controlled by the driver. A switch on the
dash uses air pressure to lock the two drive wheels together. When the
switch is off, the differential operates open, just as it does now.

The ARB carrier replaces the stock final drive ring gear carrier which
contains the spider gears.

The company site at http://www.arb.com.au/ is temporarily low on
information content but there is a good bit of ARB commentary on the off
road sites.

Any of you interested ?

Don Miller
75 Glennbrook
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
 
Hi Henry,

I got busy and dropped the ball on these ARB lockers ..... but I'm
interested in either a locker or an ABS system capable of the locking
function.

The Toro owner said ARB might be willing to do a special run if there was
enough interest.

I talked with ARB-USA and this seemed true.

I polled the net and reported to the Toro guy about a dozen of us here at
GMCnet were interested. I think fewer than that responded but I felt I
could peddle the remainder.

He was polling the Toro net but haven't heard from him so I suppose there
wasn't much interest over there.

His address is BigToro69 if you would like to talk with him.

ARB is an Australian company with their USA office / warehouse in Seattle.

A tech rep at ARB-USA said they would need a differential to look at and
measure.

There is a chance they might find something suitable among their existing
inventory in which case a special run would not be needed.

I spent some time on the phone chasing down other brands of lockers. All
were dead ends.

ARB would be my first choice since it is driver selectable, reputed to be
one of the strongest and when the switch is off, it is an open differential
like we have now.

Looks like the next step is to find a differential and get it out to ARB-USA
in Seattle for them to look over.

Don Miller
75 project
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

> A while back someone posted that they were looking into a transmission mod
> that would permit selectively locking the front wheels to aid in traction.
> Anybody own up to it? I'd like to find out what the possibilities are.
>
> Also, has anybody installed real ABS (not brak guard)?
>
> Henry
>

> From Archives - 2-23-99:
> I ran across a Toronado owner interested in installing an ARB locker.
>
> ARB might consider a special production run if there is enough interest.
>
> This guy is trying to locate other interested Toro owners and asked me to
> check with GMCMH owners.
>
>
> This is an off road system and reputed to be very strong but I have no
> experience with it.
>
> ARB is a manual system totally controlled by the driver. A switch on the
> dash uses air pressure to lock the two drive wheels together. When the
> switch is off, the differential operates open, just as it does now.
>
> The ARB carrier replaces the stock final drive ring gear carrier which
> contains the spider gears.
>
> The company site at http://www.arb.com.au/ is temporarily low on
> information content but there is a good bit of ARB commentary on the off
> road sites.
>
>
> Any of you interested ?
>
>
>
> Don Miller
> 75 Glennbrook
> Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
 
Yes. Darren

>

> >A while back someone posted that they were looking into a transmission mod
> >that would permit selectively locking the front wheels to aid in traction.
> >Anybody own up to it? I'd like to find out what the possibilities are.
>
> From Archives - 2-23-99:
> I ran across a Toronado owner interested in installing an ARB locker.
>
> ARB might consider a special production run if there is enough interest.
>
> This guy is trying to locate other interested Toro owners and asked me to
> check with GMCMH owners.
>
> This is an off road system and reputed to be very strong but I have no
> experience with it.
>
> ARB is a manual system totally controlled by the driver. A switch on the
> dash uses air pressure to lock the two drive wheels together. When the
> switch is off, the differential operates open, just as it does now.
>
> The ARB carrier replaces the stock final drive ring gear carrier which
> contains the spider gears.
>
> The company site at http://www.arb.com.au/ is temporarily low on
> information content but there is a good bit of ARB commentary on the off
> road sites.
>
> Any of you interested ?
>
> Don Miller
> 75 Glennbrook
> Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

- --
Darren Paget
76 Experimental
Another Fab Day
paget
http://www.TZEplus.com
 
Regarding ARB nd other 'locking' differentials-

Something that might work better for a GMC would be a Torsen style carrier-

Front wheel drive vehicles are very difficult to control even on very
slippery surfaces if the front wheels are mechaically coupled together- an
on/off style locker, or preloaded clutch type like 'Positraction' is going
to be very heavy handed in operation even if it can/could be disengeaged.

One solution popular in FWD cars in racing is a unit called a Torsen- Torsen
style (theres more than one manufacturer I understand) units used a worm and
sector arrangement in the carrier to reduce slip. Essentially, working on
the theory that a sector cant turn a worm, but a worm can turn a sector, by
variance in the pitch of the worm different amounts of resistance can be
built in. This is much of the reason steering boxes are worm and sector
style in heavy vehicles.

The great advantage of this type of unit is it's transparent in operation on
a FWD vehicle, but still capable of limiting slip on poor surfaces.
Currently, they are too costly for production in standard passenger cars for
the most part, but prices are coming down, and they are used in a few, Mazda
Miata is one (rwd) car that uses one I understand. They are popular in FWD
race cars.

If people are interested in a limited slip, this would be the only style of
unit that I feel might work well.

Hope this is food for thought!

Brent