Differential Locker Comparison (ARB / Eaton / Ox / Yukon) - Filthy Motorsports

Hi, I'm Ben with Dirty Motorsports and Calm Tracing PDF and in this video I'll go over

differential

s and

differential

locks as well as the different styles of differentials and then we'll also cover some of the differences that you'll encounter. between different brands of similar style differentials, so to start I will briefly explain what a differential is and what it does, and essentially it is a mechanism that sits inside the axle of your vehicle that allows the wheels to spin at different speeds and the reason why Why it is necessary is because when a vehicle turns, the outside wheel needs to cover more distance than the inside wheel and therefore needs to spin faster, so when power is applied to the axle, it must allow the wheels to spin. at different speeds to prevent the tires from rubbing. the axle from binding and that's why most factory vehicles come with what's called an open differential, so here we have an open differential, this one is from a two and a half ton military Rockwell axle, it's sitting here on its side , it is normally installed horizontally and there is another half of the stand on top, but this way it shows off the internal gears very well and works well for demonstrations on each side.

You have a side gear. You will notice that the inside is blind because that is the gear where the axle shaft slides, so ultimately These are the gears that turn the tires inside the differential. You will see four spider gears or differential pinion gears and they are attached to the carrier at this cross, so when the carrier rotates, it moves those opinion gears with it to generate power. applies to the differential, there would be a ring gear here, the driveshaft would go in and turn the axle, so you would notice when both tires are spinning at the same speed, this would happen if the vehicle is moving in a straight line, none of the internal gears rotates, the entire unit moves as a single assembly and the vehicle moves forward when the vehicle rotates and this is where it gets a little confusing in relation to the case of the outer wheel rotating forward while the inner wheel actually rotates backwards, everything is slower than the actual movement of the differential, so both tires still move forward, but internally the gears move opposite each other, so if I hold this gear and turn the differential, you will notice that the inner differential pinion gears are turning and what they are doing to the other side gear, which can't be seen, they are moving it in the opposite direction, so this would be an example of a really turning closed that normally wouldn't happen as much.

Normally, much less friction is applied to this gear, so everything still moves forward, but the outer wheel spins faster than the inner wheel. This mechanism works very, very well when driving on dry surfaces or high traction surfaces. The problem is that as soon as you lift a tire in the air or put it on some ice, the tire that has traction will maintain this lateral gear, the differential will continue to rotate, but what happens is the other wheel spins freely. and no power is transmitted to the wheel that has traction, then that is the problem with an open differential and to solve it you need some type of locking mechanism or something that helps transfer power from the free wheel to the wheel that has traction, so the first type of differential that we will go over and that is called a limited slip differential here we have a limited slip differential often abbreviated as LSD and called posi or track lock.

They are pretty easy to identify because they will all have The springs inside this particular unit are made by Yukon and are used for purple coil springs and what those springs do is push the side gears and push them towards each end of the case between the side gears and the support. find a small clutch pack these are very similar to what you would find in a manual transmission just on a much smaller scale and as the clutches rotate relative to each other they create friction and what that friction tries to do is deal with The side gears spin together at the same speed and keep the entire internal assembly spinning as much as it can at the same speed as the conveyor box, so what it does is try to keep the power on both wheels even if one wheel loses traction. in the air or on ice, the tighter the clutch pack is and the more limited slips, especially the aftermarket versions, are adjustable so you can adjust the springs, you can adjust the pull fluid in the differential and you can adjust the clutch disc friction so the more limited slips should be set for the application and therefore the tighter the clutches are the more you want to move the shaft in a straight line and the looser they are the more you will allow the vehicle to turn without squealing the tires, so A problem with the limited slip differential is the same one you would discover with the manual transmission: over time, the clutches will wear out, so in my experience, most limited slip they can be repaired;

They will normally last between twenty and thirty thousand miles before. they wear out and become an open differential so they will never fail when a limited slip differential fails it basically becomes an open differential and you can live with that as long as you want but if you are going to install a new differential, That's why I wouldn't recommend it and why we don't sell limited slips if you're going to invest the time and money to install a new differential. I just don't like the idea that twenty thousand miles down the line they're going to have to go in and then check it again, especially since there's a better product that does the job better, it's an all-gear design and doesn't need a lot of service and that type of differential It's called the Touring, a touring style differential like the Eton True Track, it's a gear design that always sends power to both wheels but allows them to spin at different speeds within a fixed ratio.

Now it's an absolutely brilliant design, it's quite difficult to explain. so I'll try to do the best I can with this cut. The principle of a Torsen is that it works on the idea that a worm gear can turn a spur gear, but a spur gear cannot turn a worm gear, just a bit more toned down for this. In the application, on the passenger vehicle to which the ring gear is attached, we have three pairs of worm wheels. Worm wheels have spur gears on each end and lock them together in a one-to-one ratio, like an open differential, so whenever you are making a turn, one wheel moves in one direction, one wheel moves in one direction. in the opposite direction relative to the case, so these gears are what caused that one-to-one relationship, so inside the differential we have a pair of helical gears inside those. helical gears, you have the half shafts and you can already see that it's a little tight, but when I move one in one direction, the other one has to move in the other direction, so that's the one to one relationship with those half shafts, so just that.

It would make you think that this differential works like an open conveyor, the difference is that with these worm wheels, the thrust of those worm gears inside push at an angle of almost 45 degrees and that creates a lot of friction, while to stimulate the gears It can move very very easily if you have two gears 90 degrees apart from each other when one turns to try to turn the other it takes a lot of force and you have to overcome that friction which is the principle of a touring car. So you'll have conventional oil, you can use synthetic, that's a common question we understand, it just takes a little more work to lock it up, but when you have one tire that spins freely and one that has action, it locks up. against each other because they are trying to move faster than that one to one ratio when they lock these gears it makes it much harder for them to turn the internal gears and it basically more or less turns the unit into a reel on its own, there are no switches. electronics, there are no clutches, nothing to wear out, it's simply friction and the specific angle at which these helical gears engage, so without going into too much more detail, that's pretty much the function of a real track when you have one tire that is on ice and another tire that is on dry pavement, as soon as that tire on ice starts spinning and the FinFET spins faster than that two-to-one or one-to-one ratio, it will block the true track and force the tire on the pavement to move. vehicle forward, so you always get power to both wheels.

Now one problem is that it's not exactly a worm gear and you can make them rotate relative to each other. When you lift a tire in the air it will spin freely so the solution I mean you do what the military does with all the military Humvees and the front and rear differentials and when you lift a tire in the air you hit the parking brake or you step on the brake a little bit and press the accelerator and what. What I'm going to do is trick that tether that's in the air, trick the differential into thinking it has some traction or friction, it'll lock the differential and you'll move forward again, so again. you can see why this is such an amazing design and this is by far our best selling differential for applications that do not require a selectable

locker

or a reel or

locker

Detroit where you know it is an off road only application for trucks to tow to drive around town this is the most reliable, the most effective and will last virtually the entire life of the axle use a good oil install it correctly and there is nothing to repair or maintain across the board almost any Torsen or Eaton True Track application is highly, highly recommended, so I hope that helps explain how it works and we'll move on to the selectable lockers, our differentials which normally act as open differentials if they have an internal locking mechanism that when engaged will force both axle shafts to rotate together in a similar manner to a reel, so there are three common types: you have the Manual Ox Locker, you have the air operated ARB Air Locker.

I'll also show you the Yukon version called the Zip Locker and then there's the Eaton it's an all electric locker so the benefit of a selectable locker is that during normal operation it acts as an open differential as soon as you get to a situation where When you need extra traction, you pull a lever or flip a switch. To engage the mechanism and turn the axle into a spool when you are done, unlatch the locker and you will have the differential open again. We'll start by going over the air lockers in a little more detail, these are our lockers.

We have the ARB air Locker and the Yukon zip Locker. They both work on exactly the same principle: air is supplied to the unit, fed through a hole in one of the bearing journals and then pushed up onto a engagement collar which will lock. one of the side gears to the case, thus locking the entire internal mechanism in the ARB, that feed is on the side of the crown, right next to the engagement collar, while on the Yukon Locker it is on the opposite side and then push up or down on this internal. Composite cage, as they are air operated lockers.

You will need an air source which is not included with the lockers, something you must order or purchase separately. Typically this is an air compressor, although you can use a CO2 tank that will be fed via an airline. in an electric solenoid that can be opened and closed by a switch you have on the dash, that airline is then fed to a collar that is located right next to the carrier bearing and feeds air to that hole between two o-rings on either side Then, as the box rotates, it seals and air comes in through that hole, which is why air lockers are extremely reliable.

However, you need to be very careful during the installation process because you can see that there are many parts involved in the operation of the lockers. They are running there Air lines, make sure they keep them away from heat and moving parts. A pinched or leaking air line will cause the locker to fail. Make sure you have good electrical connections. Fuses blowing wires chafing will also cause the lock or not to work and then also during the installation of the differential itself you need to make sure there is no debris, dust or anything between those o-rings because if those o-rings leak , you will have a failure here and you definitely won't.

I don't want that to happen on the differential because it's a difficult part to reach once you're on the road or once everything is fixed. That said, between the two of us we definitely saw a lot more ARB air lockers than we did. I do the Yukon personally, I always prefer the ARB too. I think it's a slightly simpler and stronger mechanism than yours. I use them on my landcruiser andnone of my Rockwall axles, but I wouldn't hesitate to run the Yukon. a little cheaper especially if you wait for some of their summer rebate programs, they are backed by a six year warranty which is great but for me the composite cage is something I have never had a problem with a customer, but when you're looking between the two and with the amount of work it takes to install them, my personal preference is the ARB, but we sell a lot and we really haven't had any customers that have had problems and our customers are actually tougher than their equipment , but if you install them correctly and pay attention to the things I've mentioned, you'll have a long-lasting, reliable ID from any of them and they work fantastically.

That said, let's move on to the electronic lockers, this is an Eton a. locker the e stands for electric and that is exactly what it is, it runs on a 12 volt current which will lock or disable the mechanism on your dash, it will install a switch when you turn the switch on it will send that current to the locker which will lock it. Turn off the switch and it will disconnect it. You have an open differential again. It is very simple and also very easy to install. It is the easiest of all. selectable lockers because all you have to run is a small cable up to the shaft, the locking mechanism itself is quite good and as you would expect it is driven by an electromagnet, you will see that it is completely sealed in epoxy and then in this collar there are a pair of pins that fit against the shaft to prevent it from rotating and breaking the cable inside the differential.

There are two roller cams in which there are three ball bearings, so the ball bearings sit in these cams and then there is the other half. the inside and they sit together and the two collars are flat against each other when the blockers are in the off position, when you apply power to the magnet it will push everything together and when the shaft rotates it will force them to ride against each other. each other and you'll see as they go up, the two collars separate when they separate inside the differential, they will push against these springs and this plate that are connected to six really strong pins, those pins push down into that. differential and into the side gear, so you'll see these gaps inside the side gear, that's where those pins are pushed in, so the actual locking mechanism is extremely strong, it's six pins pushed into that side gear, although one The disadvantage of this design is that the cams, as reliable as they are, mean that there is really nothing here to fail, the problem is that when the lockers are activated and power is applied to the magnet, the shaft still has to turn about a quarter turn before the bearings can come up and push them. pins on the side gear, the other problem is that when you are moving forward and then stop and have to reverse, the bearings have to move down to their rest position and then back all the way to engage in the rearward position, which It means your tires will have to go almost half a full revolution from front to back, which causes a bit of slack.

Now the design is extremely reliable. You will find that there is really nothing wrong other than possibly damaging the cable. of that clearance and this is not a locker that I would recommend for a single purpose off-road vehicle, so I would recommend the air locker or the mechanical locker or even the Detroit locker which we'll cover in a little bit. but this is really the right choice for a daily driving vehicle that occasionally needs more traction. I sell a lot of combination lockers with Eaton true controls because they make the ultimate combination for a truck a true track in the back and then an e Locker in the front that you can activate when you need it so it has a very , very good, they are affordable for what they are and very easy to install, so for a street vehicle, a daily driver, you just need to put a little more. traction in I highly recommend the e Denis Locker, so with the e Locker covered, let's move on to the last selectable locker and that is the manual box locker.

This is the ox locker. It is a manual activation locker, so there is no 12 volt electric air supply. The supply is needed to activate or deactivate it. Everything is done mechanically. You have a shifter that you can mount on the dash and the center console or on the floor of the cabin and then you run a cable from there to the axle where the locker is located. installed inside the differential, you will notice that we have this shift fork when I move the lever from the open position to the locked position, that fork moves in, what it does is move a engagement collar very similar to the ARB air lock that they I showed.

You are moving that engagement collar over one of the side gears securing it to the case which in turn locks all the internal gears together and locks the axle shafts together to disengage the lock you simply move the lever to the open position now the mechanical nature of this shifter is one of my favorite features of the Ox Locker. I love being able to move it from one to another and knowing what position the Locker is in and knowing that it is actually done with an airlock or an e Locker that you turn. a switch and you don't know if you have a fault or problem with the Ox Locker, you know what position it is in, plus it can remain in the locked position indefinitely, because no air supply or constant electrical source is needed to keep it activated when it is lock lever is in the locked position it can stay here practically forever, that means the Ox Locker is an open differential or literally a reel, it will stay a reel and be as reliable a shifter as this lock. collar that holds the lever in any position and then for added safety you can turn down the gear knob and that will prevent your dog from getting in and accidentally moving it to the locked position when driving down the road when you are Ordering a Knox Locker , you must measure the shift cable.

Keep in mind that they are not very flexible, so you want to make sure you get nice long corners so of course the shifter stays moving smoothly. There is some leniency in the length. of the cable you order, but if you order the wrong size, don't worry, we offer a free exchange. The aux Locker also comes with its own differential cover, a very strong cast and differential cover that the shift fork fits into. It is attached so you get a free differential cover with all orders, also the auxiliary does what is called its rollaway lock and this is a great tool that we include free with all Aux Locker orders and it is what works well for redundancy , so if the Locker auxiliary cable is damaged or broken, you can remove the cable bolt and it pushes the locker to the lock position, so they call it walk away lock because if it has a fault you can still drive with this mechanism or forgetting about the gear lever. and the cable, if you want something really small and compact, you can run just the distance lock and you will just have to mechanically move the differential from open to locked when you need it so it can stay in any position. for long periods of time and also has that positive engagement that makes this locker ideal for trucks or vehicles used in oil and gas, ranching or mining or if you have a snow plow because it will stay in that locked position, it is also very well made, the majority, I think actually almost all of the components on this are made in the USA, we have had very good luck working with them, we have sold many of these units without any problems, so if you are looking for a selectable product Locker for you and you like the features we just went over here, you can't go wrong with Ox Locker.

It is highly recommended, that being said, it takes care of the selectable lockers, so let's move on to the Detroit Locker. The Detroit Locker is probably the most well-known type of differential locker, it has been around for what seems like forever and has a very good reputation, to the point that the name Detroit Locker is used synonymously with differential locker, so there is a bit of confusion. I have many clients who ask me. order the detroit lockers without knowing how they work or what their advantages and disadvantages are and realistically the detroit lockers are not really a differential at all, it has no internal differential gears, it is sometimes called a gearless differential but In my opinion it works much more like a reel. with a sort of fuse function, so let's take a look at how they work.

The Detroit Locker is made up of three wheels that have these ratchet style teeth cut radially, they are all pressed together, there are two springs on each side that push them. together, so that in its rest position, when power is applied to the Detroit Locker, it immediately sends it to both wheels equally well, as we have covered previously, when a vehicle turns on a high traction surface, the wheels will try to move in directions opposite to each other in relation to the carrier, so when that happens, you get this differentiating force where the axle shafts try to push in opposite directions and what that will do is force one of these side gears to come up on the internal cams, as you will see. them here, it's going to go up those internal cams and it's going to skip a tooth and then it's going to skip another tooth for as long as it takes on that turn, so what's happening is the differentiating force in a Detroit Locker or the function in the Detroit Locker is In Actually, when you disconnect one of the axle shafts completely, what also happens is, as you can imagine, every time it clicks, it makes a noise, you hear this ratcheting sound coming from the Detroit Locker.

Another problem, unfortunately, is due to the design in which there is built-in clearance. the drive means that from a stop when you press the accelerator it has to move a little bit and it will click, so it has a bit of lean built in from the front, as soon as you release the accelerator it will click back. so it's a little sloppy to drive, however with those flaws it's a little noisy a little sloppy, works amazing off road, many desert racers use the Detroit Locker. I think almost all of today's ultra4 racers run with a Detroit Locker style differential. and then you'll see them all in mud races and even some drag racing applications will use a Detroit Locker for the street.

I would be very cautious and recommend one especially for something that spends most of its time on the street. They are street legal. you can drive them, no problem, but just like anything else you have to drive to the vehicle, it will act a little differently, mainly in different types of traction conditions, so if it's raining or if it's muddy or if there is some snow or ice that the Detroit locker doesn't really know about or doesn't disengage gently, it will be blocked or open, so a very common problem with the Detroit locker on street driven vehicles is that a little bit of squirrel eNOS in the rear when you are cornering when it's raining or muddy, it will stay locked for a moment and then suddenly disconnect or it will stay disconnected and suddenly lock, so you have to have Be careful under heavier vehicles, such as commercial vehicles or utility trucks, the Detroit Locker tends to work quite well because it has enough weight to force it to disengage.

There are two different styles of Detroit lockers. You have the complete case. style that replaces the entire luggage rack and then you have what is called a Locker lunch box and these are really cool. Turns out it's a Spartan and these simply replace the spider gears in an open differential so you don't have to remove the entire rack. You don't have to remove the gears, you don't have to do any gear setup, you just remove the differential cover, remove the spider gears on the transaxle, replace it with this lunchbox style Detroit Locker and you have a Detroit Locker, this one doesn't either. has so much slope built in, it's a slightly different design that works on the same principle, but they work great for front axles if you have selectable hubs or if you're on a budget or doing the work yourself and want to maintain It's simple, there's another Detroit Locker made by you, it's called Grizzly Locker.

I took them apart and looked at them side by side, these are actually the internal parts of a Yukon Grizzly locker. This is a real Detroit Locker and believe it or not. The parts are completely interchangeable with each other. I really had to look hard to try to figure out any differences. I read the marketing materials. I have spoken with both manufacturers. They both claim that theirs is better than his. others, but I have sold many of each and as long as they are installed correctly and used in the proper application, they are extremely reliable and get the job done, so I would just order the ones that are available and most affordable, bothThey are very very well made, but I think we still sell more Detroit Locker simply because of the name recognition, so it is a Detroit Locker and the last differential style left would be the full reel.

The last style of differential we'll go over is the spool and it's actually not a differential at all, it's literally a piece of steel that has been machined to accept a ring gear and then has splines on each end for the axle shafts, so which, as you can see, one coil will always send power to both. axle shafts equally and does not have a differentiating function, for that reason it is truly all-terrain. You should never drive a vehicle with a reel on the street. Trophy trucks. Desert racers as reels. You'll find them on some mud trucks and applications.

We still prefer Detroit. Locker just because it gives you that little fuse feature, it helps with reliability and it helps prevent some damage, but nothing that you know gets as tough as a full reel on your shaft, a smaller version of the reel and a little bit less. What was involved in something less permanent was a mini reel and this one looks a lot like the lunch box locker I showed you earlier. This simply goes in and replaces the spider gears in an open differential so you don't have to remove the rack at all. remove the differential cover remove the spider gears on the cross pin put on the mini spool and you will have a spool and the good thing about that is if you decide you don't like it or it doesn't work for you in the future you can always take this out and go back to fit the spider gears and have an open differential.

Then, if you're absolutely on a budget and don't want to spend anything, you can always go for backyard engineering and just solder the spider gears together. These are Spider Geils that I had left over from a Rockwell shaft. I asked you to solder them, you don't have to go too. It's crazy, but I've seen people fill the entire unit together. I went ahead and of course painted, which is not something you would do, but yes, despite our years together, it is not the case if you just pump the spider gears together. Basically you have a very cheap, simple and effective reel, so even in off road applications I would only recommend a reel on the rear and front on a solid axle application, there is too much binding and many times if you are on the trail even If you have a Selectable Locker on it is very difficult to make tight turns, so a Selectable Locker is a great option for trails, especially on the front, so the reel should never be used on the front if necessary. something to match the Detroit Locker style or Spartan lunchbox Locker and then match it with the reel on the back but with the reels covered.

I think we've looked at all the major types of spreads we offer. I know this video has probably become quite long, but I hope you made it through it and it answered all the questions you like with our other videos. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. You can always email me at been at

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