Torsen

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.gmi.edu>]

On Mon, 8 Jan 1996, Dave Eaton wrote:

>intended) this and compensates *extremely* quickly.  in extremis you have
>an instaneous 75% of torque switched to the axle with the most traction. 

I think that this is close to the truth, were a LSD will transmit maybe 
40-50%, and an open diff, maybe 5-10% due to its own internal friction.

>in the same situation with the manual locker, if you're not locked, you're
>in trouble - if you are then you're running with only 50% of the torque. >

With the manually locking diff in the locked position, you can have all 
of the engine's torque at any one of the locked wheels if the others are 
on ice.

	There are also handling advantages to a Torsen which Eric Fletcher
(or who was it that did the excellent paper on AWD systems in use in the
Auto industry?) could probably describe better than I.  It will apportion
torque to different wheels as needed during high G turns. 

Later,								
Graydon D. Stuckey								
graydon@apollo.gmi.edu								
'86 Audi 5000 CS Turbo Quattro, GDS Racing Stage II				
'85 Mazda RX7 GS 12A-leaning-towards-a-13B-soon