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Car differential...

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
Itsallaguess
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Car differential...

#327737

Postby Itsallaguess » July 21st, 2020, 4:38 pm

Great video explaining how differentials work, and how the problem of driven wheels needing to rotate at different speeds was solved -

https://www.reddit.tube/video/b34f77bf25c38e5e6a3d4336fe045f41ca5b0de4

Please note that audio is off by default, and needs turning on at the lower-right of the video.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

richlist
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Re: Car differential...

#327881

Postby richlist » July 22nd, 2020, 10:31 am

I've been driving for 50 years, was employed in the car industry for 35 years but never understood how a differential actually worked.
That video has to be one of the best videos ever .....very clear and easy to understand.
Thank you.

PrincessB
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Re: Car differential...

#328026

Postby PrincessB » July 22nd, 2020, 8:05 pm

You can buy Lego differentials which are small elegant and work.

Couple of quid from E-bay.

bionichamster
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Re: Car differential...

#328718

Postby bionichamster » July 25th, 2020, 8:41 pm

PrincessB wrote:You can buy Lego differentials which are small elegant and work.

Couple of quid from E-bay.


That's where I learned how they worked, had one of those cars with an engine with moving pistons, a two speed gearbox, a rear diff, independent rear suspension, rack and pinion steering, adjustable and reclining seats steering all made from Lego! And as far as I know none of the parts were made specifically for that vehicle, which seems to be their cop out these days.

BH

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Re: Car differential...

#328719

Postby Lootman » July 25th, 2020, 8:51 pm

bionichamster wrote:
PrincessB wrote:You can buy Lego differentials which are small elegant and work.

Couple of quid from E-bay.

That's where I learned how they worked, had one of those cars with an engine with moving pistons, a two speed gearbox, a rear diff, independent rear suspension, rack and pinion steering, adjustable and reclining seats steering all made from Lego! And as far as I know none of the parts were made specifically for that vehicle, which seems to be their cop out these days.

Everything I learned about gears came from my Meccano gear set, some time in the 1960s back when Meccano was proper metal with none of this plastic rubbish. The rack and pinion was my favourite, attached to my Mamod steam engine:

https://picclick.com/Vintage-Meccano-Ge ... 97901.html

jfgw
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Re: Car differential...

#330257

Postby jfgw » August 1st, 2020, 8:11 pm

Interesting video, a lot of work went into it. I didn't know about the low centre drive.

I learnt how a differential worked from a book my sister gave me one Christmas. It is called "How Things Work" and even has a picture of a diff on the front cover, https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOW-THINGS-WOR ... B001FYUGUE . The book is copyright 1967 and was published earlier than that in Germany. With few exceptions, each item is on one double page with some text on the verso and diagrams on the facing recto (so it is very brief). For example, both the lever-operated and the key-operated cash registers are covered on one double page and, while the Hollerith Punched-Card System article mentions punching and tabulating machines, the diagrams just feature a sorting machine. Unfortunately, the so-called "perfect binding" (where the pages are just glued, not stitched) is anything but perfect and some of the pages are loose.

I did make a Lego differential using cogs and chains. IIRC, I had a set like this, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index. ... ls-bricks/ , plus another set of the same types of gears etc. There was no provision for concentric shafts so, for the input, I mounted some gears in an approximately regular polygon and used them en-mass as an input gear by running a chain around the whole lot.


Julian F. G. W.

Mike4
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Re: Car differential...

#330303

Postby Mike4 » August 2nd, 2020, 8:44 am

Lootman wrote:Everything I learned about gears came from my Meccano gear set, some time in the 1960s back when Meccano was proper metal with none of this plastic rubbish. The rack and pinion was my favourite, attached to my Mamod steam engine:

https://picclick.com/Vintage-Meccano-Ge ... 97901.html

Yep, same here. I was fascinated by differentials from an early age as it was obvious to me a car did not have a solid back axle, as the tyres didn't scrub when it went around corners.

My dad explained to me there was a differential for the purpose of drive both wheels but at differing relative speeds but couldn't quite explain in words how it worked. I remember finding written instructions how to build one from Mechano so I followed them and the light dawned. I am still fascinated with them.

Constant velocity joints are an equally fascinating device.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-velocity_joint




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