I noticed that my driver side front wheel is not engaging when in 4 wheel drive. Passenger side engages fine. It is the manual 4 wheel drive unit. Is the driver side Hub probly bad? Suggestions on what to check would be appreciated. Thanks

 

What do you mean "not engaging"? Do you mean one wheel spins and the other does not when you have poor traction? The front does not have a limited slip diff and one wheel will almost always spin before the other. Could be the left, could be the right. They are both pulling the same but one has less traction. It's normal.

Wetspirit

 

I got stuck in a drift when plowing and the driver side wheel would not engage ( spin ) at all to assist in getting me out. I also tried to push against a pile of snow after noticing this and could not get the driver side to spin, but both the rear and front passenger side were throwing snow.

 

Welcome to the world of open differentials. As soon as ARB comes out with an air locker, I'm definetly putting one in the front of my Dodge.

 

So this is normal. This vehicle is definitly not a very good plow truck then. Would of kept my 02 if i had known this.

 

You really bought a 4x3, when you thought you bought a 4x4 - we all did.

 

With adequate tire traction it's 4wd, but with ice, deep snow or mud, or some uneven surfaces you end up with 2wd or 3wd. I agree, selectable lockers front and rear would be nice. I think that Dodge uses electronic lockers on the Powerwagon (?) 9.25 and 10.5 axles, so you should be able to get parts for the front at least.

 

My friends were quite impressed with my truck! I slid into a ditch with a ski-doo trailer on and the guys said that all four were digging hard. They all have Chevs and said they rarely see all four grab.

Maybe this is why I have a hard time turning this truck on icy roads. In town it's embarrassing, I have to be down to a crawl.

 

There is no such thing as a 4X3. An open diff distributes equal torque to each wheel all the time. When one wheel is spinning and the other is not, they are both putting the same torque to the ground. That's the nature of an open diff. A locker forces both wheels to turn at the same speed and therefore applies more torque to the wheel with more traction.

Wetspirit

 

99.9999999999999% of vehicles on the road that are 4x4 do NOT come with any sort of limited slip or locker in the front. I forgot about the powerwagon's front locker, I'll go down to the dealership and see if I can find an exploded view and see if perhaps it would work on our 9.25" axles, and where the "carrier-break" is, if it will work with 3.73s, 4.11's, or both.

 

John,

Man that would be sweet if we could retro a Power Wagon front locker. Let us know what you find.

Wetspirit

 

Wetspirit knows what he's talking about. We went back and forth on this in another thread, and he eventually made me see what he means about the equal torque thing. Unfortunately, equal torque often means 3 wheels spinning, as you have seen. A locker would definitely cure that problem.

 

If you have one wheel spinning on an open diff, you don't have equal torque going to both wheels. The spinning wheel gets all the power. The only way you get equal torque with a spool or a 'locked' locker. If you accelerate, the slipping wheel will accelerate while the stationary one won't therefore, all power is being distributed to the spinning wheel. You can't look it as what torque gets put to the ground to understand where the torque is going. When you turn a vehicle, you need the tires to turn at different speeds because not all the tires follow the same path. Generally, tires on the outside of a turn have to go faster than tire on the inside. Open differentals allow this difference in speed. If you put a spool in the front, one or both tires has to slip. On low tractions surfaces, this will cause the steering, front tires to both slip and you go straight .

 

Think about it some more. It's just the opposite of what you said. When one wheel is slipping on ice and the other wheel is on dry pavement, they are both applying equal torque to the ground. Just because one is spinning doesn't mean it's getting the torque. When you have a spool or a locker it's mostly unequal torque. With a locker one wheel with traction can get you unstuck, because the system is able to put more torque to the hard surface on one side. And that's why we get stuck with an open diff, because it can only apply equal torque to both wheels, so we are limited by the one with the least traction. As soon as one wheel slips that's the max torque that either wheel can see. This is also why we can go around corners smoothly, equal torque at varying speed. Both wheels are pulling as we go through the corner. Equal torque at unequal speed is the very reason for the differential, that's what it was designed for, and that unequal speed can be a small difference (cornering) or with one wheel completely stopped (stuck), either way, equal torque. The lockers just modify an old design to improve it's ability to apply "unequal" torque to the ground by having some kind of mechanism to force the wheels to turn at the same speed, thus getting us unstuck by partialy or completely defeating the differential. I say "some kind of mechanism" because there are many designs, but the idea is to make the wheels turn at the same speed so the one with the least traction doesn't limit the one with greater traction. Unequal torque. With a spool both wheels are always turning the same speed. So as the vehicle begins to turn, the inner wheel tries to go faster against the ground and the outer wheel slower. It's hard to turn because there is no differentiation.

An open diff ALWAYS puts equal torque to both wheels wether they are turning the same speed or one is spinning wildly.

Wetspirit

 

'Equal torque' probably confounds the real problem, which I'll guess is assumed to be 'equal traction, or pretty much so. That will probably be a combination of surface, tire, and torque.