Thread: Detroit rear locker

Originally Posted by Naks

[...]
the original diff was replaced by LR after about a year of ownership, so not sure if that was not done properly, and after 9 years it finally went over when the ATB was installed?

Well.....as mentioned in past posts - my own experience with the droning that started after installing the ATB, was to do with the crownwheel not seating properly flat when bolted up to the ATB (diff centre) casing.

Ashcroft built up a recon diff and fitted their ATB to it for me and shipped over to Kuala Lumpur. I had a local indie essentially swap out the old diffs (front and rear) for the new (with AT. Which meant I had the two original open diffs as spares. When the droning became very apparent and was getting worst with every passing week, I got the diff pulled and checked and found the runout as measured at the crownwheel.

When I contacted Ashcroft with this info they advised that it is not uncommon, that there may be some casting irregularity causing the crownwheel to not sit flush as it should, and they apologised for not picking that up before shipping the goods (and kindly compensated me for my trouble somewhat).

So I would strongly suggest that if your droning only started after fitting the ATB, perhaps something similar happened... in the 9yrs after LR replaced the diff for you did it drone like that?

Originally Posted by garrycol

Lets not get bogged down in minutia - with any of these diffs, if ultimately one wheel completely looses traction you dont have drive - up until that point not matter if it as a ATB, Torsen, LSD or some other version they provide various levels of traction to the wheels where a normal diff may not. They all have the function of limiting slip but using different means.

Garry

Absolutely. Its not a case of one type of locker shaming all other types. Each has specific characteristics and use cases. ATBs are often not well understood and so I wrote at length hoping to be clear on what the differences are - so people can decide which type of locker, if any, suits their use case.

For my personal case - I do use my Defender pretty hard when I get to go offroad, but don't go silly or try competition level obstacles! I know that apart from bush weekends my vehicle is also my daily driver.

In my own personal use case I prefer to sacrifice the full locking potential of selectable lockers or non-selectable unlockers for the full time, onroad and offroad surefootedness that the ATB delivers. That means that:
- there will be very occasional moments where I might wish I had a full locker. I can live with that and for the level of track difficulty I tackle - mostly my superior driving skill , line selection, and occasional LF Braking will get me through.

Originally Posted by tact

... in the 9yrs after LR replaced the diff for you did it drone like that?

no, it didn't.

Originally Posted by tact

Absolutely. Its not a case of one type of locker shaming all other types. Each has specific characteristics and use cases. ATBs are often not well understood and so I wrote at length hoping to be clear on what the differences are - so people can decide which type of locker, if any, suits their use case.

For my personal case - I do use my Defender pretty hard when I get to go offroad, but don't go silly or try competition level obstacles! I know that apart from bush weekends my vehicle is also my daily driver.

In my own personal use case I prefer to sacrifice the full locking potential of selectable lockers or non-selectable unlockers for the full time, onroad and offroad surefootedness that the ATB delivers. That means that:
- there will be very occasional moments where I might wish I had a full locker. I can live with that and for the level of track difficulty I tackle - mostly my superior driving skill , line selection, and occasional LF Braking will get me through.

Interesting to know that u prefer the ATB's.... Does your Defender have Traction Control?

I've thought I would go down this path as well until I found out that they don't make ATB's for the Rear Salisbury Diffs of the older Defenders.... or at least I can't find any info that u can get one, so I was thinking about a Detroit for the Rear and a ATB for the Front.... when or if the budget allowed that is

Originally Posted by trout1105

The Wavetrac diffs Do look interesting.
Wavetrac® Differentials - Technical Information - © Autotech Corp. All rights reserved.

None for Land Rover though or any real 4x4 for that matter.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Interesting to know that u prefer the ATB's.... Does your Defender have Traction Control?

I've thought I would go down this path as well until I found out that they don't make ATB's for the Rear Salisbury Diffs of the older Defenders.... or at least I can't find any info that u can get one, so I was thinking about a Detroit for the Rear and a ATB for the Front.... when or if the budget allowed that is

I am going to go True Trac in the rear.

Originally Posted by CraigE

None for Land Rover though or any real 4x4 for that matter.

IF they are any good it won't take that long for them to "Migrate" over to the 4X4 scene

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Interesting to know that u prefer the ATB's.... Does your Defender have Traction Control?

No it doesn’t. So I use a bit of left foot braking occasionally to control a wheel in the air (for example). Clearly TC is far more effective than LFB to compensate the ATB (or open diff) Achilles heel. (A wheel in the air)

LFB is much more effective when an ATB is present - as compared to LFB with just an open diff. When an ATB is present you only need a little braking on the wheel in the air for the torque biassing to be effective. You do need to feed in some extra throttle to compensate for the braking.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

I've thought I would go down this path as well until I found out that they don't make ATB's for the Rear Salisbury Diffs of the older Defenders.... or at least I can't find any info that u can get one, so I was thinking about a Detroit for the Rear and a ATB for the Front.... when or if the budget allowed that is

i have had a Detroit equivalent in one of my vehicles many years ago. It was an “Aussie locker”. Absolutely just as effective as a selectable locker when locked. Awesome kit and so simple.

Just nowadays (with ATBs available) my own preference is for the ATB. It does give full differential action (driving both wheels proportionally whether straight line or turning) all the time.