I figured the Drag Racing guys would know more about this subject

What are all of the different differential types? I know there are open, LSD, locker, and spool. Am I missing any? I know that open just plain sucks (I have open), LSD is good for DD, and locker and spools are drag only ones.

What happens when you try and turn with a locker or a spool? Will anything bad happen? Thanks

 

You will wear your front tires out sooner and a locker is noisy.

There's an air locker, a detroit locker, loc rite has its own style locker, there's a mini spool for circle track use, and there's gerator type differentials.

 

Why do your front tires wear out faster? And are you actually able to turn with a drag spool (not the mini spool)? Because I've heard that spools are only for straight line racing.

 

Mini spools replace the side gears in an open diff. A full spool has no differential action. Both work the same but a full spool is much stronger. The way a spool works is that it locks both axles together so they always turn the same speed. The way a normal differential works is that it allows the outside wheel to turn faster when going around corners since it has a longer distance to travel. Since a spool won't allow this, the outside wheel will slip across the ground trying to keep up. This is dangerous on the street and especially when the roads are wet.

Locking diffs can be done lots of ways. Air lockers use an air compressor to lock the diff. When it's locked it's similar to a spool however you have to lock and unlock it manually. Detroit lockers will normally operate in a locked mode but when there's enough force on the axles while driving around a corner it will unlock and allow the outside wheel to turn faster.

Factory posi diffs also have different ways of locking but the most common is with clutches and springs. Posi is GM's name for the diff. Ford and Dodge have their own name for a posi diff but they all do the same thing. A posi diff holds both axles in a locked position by spring pressure and clutches. When going around corners, the clutches will slip and allow that outside wheel to turn faster.

 

Thanks Stephen. You answered all the questions I had about diffs and spools