i know the purpose of an lsc but im confused about something. The base 350z does not have one. Does this mean that if you lose traction, only one wheel will spin? is only one rear wheel being powered in a vehicle without an lsd? If anyone can fill me in it would be much appreciated.

 

my mom has an 02 max that i take out sometimes. I know its fwd and im not sure that it has an lsd but i know when i spin the tires it leaves rubber on the road from both wheels.

 

I think with LSD one wheel will slow down to help catch up cornering, I dont have LSD but I corner fast with np.

 

With an Open Differential, it will transfer power to the other wheel not getting enough....it should leave 1 burn out mark.

 

The LSD makes the outside wheel spin faster on a corner than the inside wheel. If you car about going around a corner at 10/10ths than and LSD is important (although the stock one sucks). If you only care about going really fast in a straight line it probably doesnt matter much.

 

Actually it does matter if your going in a straight line. it can reduce 60' ft times by a lot! It can help you get a better launch as well and also drift if your into that kind of stuff!

 

LSD keeps power planted on the outside tire SHOULD the inside tire begin to slip, hence the reason its called limited slip.

its good for taking off and also good for cornering... all of course, in the DRY. when the rain/snow comes, LSDs (mostly mechanical) can ruin the performance of a car because the back end can kickout easier...

pro's and cons... all depends on what you want. i like having an LSD, its a great trinket.

 

a car without an LSD, can spin both tires. it just wont ussually... sometimes; it just happens; both loose traction and stay that way. try it a few times and I bet a couple of times it wont peel both.

diffs are set up where if you had a car on a jack, and spun one wheel; the other wheel would spin the other way(assuming the driveshaft was fixed). a solid axle; or to a point one with a LSD; you simply wouldnt be able to turn the wheel.

 

The function of a plain old differential is to allow the rear wheels to spin at different rates so that the outside wheel may rotate faster than the inside wheel during a turn. Without a differential, the inside tire would be forced to scrub along in an attempt to match the rotational speed of the outside wheel while traveling a shorter distance per given amount of time.

The problem with a standard differential is that it allows a wheel with lots of traction to stand still while the other wheel with little traction spins wildly (A delta of 100%). The same technology that allows the wheels to rotate at different speeds in a turn is now working against you by taking the path of least resistance (the slipping wheel), effectively transferring power from the engine into thin air (in the form of smoke!)

Enter the Limited Slip Differential. The idea is to have a differential that can provide varying degrees of "lockup" depending on the delta (variance) between the two wheel speeds. If the wheels are turning *almost* the same speed (as would be the case when driving around a corner), allow the wheels to spin at their respective speeds while still applying power to both. If the wheels are turning with a higher delta, then the assumption is that one of those wheels is slipping. We want the limited-slip mechanism to kick in and start to lock the wheels together so that the power isn't wasted by taking the path of least resistance.

The technology behind this is a liquid that, unlike most liquids, gets thicker as it gets hot. A series of inline plates inside the differential rotate at the same speed when the car is traveling in a straight line. In a turn, when wheel speeds vary just a little, the liquid heats up and thickens just a little, but not so much as to force the inside wheel to scrub. In a case where one wheel has lost traction and there is a high speed delta, the plates slip against one another, causing friction that heats the plates and the liquid. As the liquid gets thick, it begins to bind the plates together forcing the wheels to turn at a more equal speed.

Hope this helps.

 

so is the base 350z 1 or 2 wheel drive under normal accelleration?
oh and also the max must have an lsd because it leaves 2 rubber marks everytime

 

its not a 1 or 2 wheel drive kind of thing...

its not like the gear only turns one wheel and the rest are along for the drive.

its all an action reaction kind of thing.

in our case; the driveshaft is turning the differential.

now not exactly but in an open differential assume you have 100%; and there are 2 wheels taking this power.

the way its set up; whichever wheel is easier to turn will get the larger share.

equal traction means both are equally easy to turn; thus; both are pushing.

go around a turn; the outside wheel is traveling farther; needs to turn faster; easier to go faster; it WILL go faster. opposite, the inside tires goes slower as they must always add up to 100%.

in a hard launch; you assume 1 is sticker; on rougher pavement; whatever. thus it slips a tad, thats it, now its got kinetic friction; which is far less than static friction(easier to keep something moving than to start it off).

as a result; that spinning tire gets all the RPMs and the other stands still.

also since they are opposite of each other. with the drive shaft turning say 100RPM, it divides those RPMs to add up to 100%, so normal driving is 50RPMs to each tire. launch with 1 tire spinning will actually spin 1 tire at 100RPMs and the other at 0. always adds up to 100%.

that was probably super confusing, but maybe you followed some small part of it.

 

no i completely understand it.. Thank you. u actually explained it vey well