I think my Limited Slip Diff is not working properly....

In the middle of a pretty good snow, I decided to take my brother from texas for a ride in my jeep... ha ha, jeep is toppless right now. Long story short, cruised around in snow for a while when I hit a hidden 3 foot snow drift at about 30mph. It threw snow over hood and sucked us into the ditch pretty deep. At that point I put it in 4 wheel drive. While rocking it back and forth I noticed that the left rear tire is not spinning. It has a limited slip diff and that is what concerned me. Does that basically say that my clutches are bad? How hard is it to repair?

I am pretty sure it is 1964 dana 44.

With it jacked up, both rear wheels off ground, both the wheels turn the same direction with the trans in nuetral. When trans is in gear they do not spin at all.

To finish my story with a lot of spinning and rocking back and forth the little jeep drove back out on its own. My brother was impressed, and cold ha ha.

I LOVE THAT JEEP!!!!!

 

sounds like your clutch pack is worn out, do you use your diff hard? how long have you had the limited slip

 

The next time you are a situation like this, try stepping on the brakes some, the tire that is spinning needs some resistance so it will tighten up the clutch pack in the limeted slip.

About 12 years back, my neighbor parked his 1 1/2 ton truck in front of my house in the winter along with a 20 ft trailer loaded with concrete forms, sort of imbeded in 2" of ice, he couldn't get it out.
I thought, sure, the Jeep shiould get him out.
So both of the passenger side tires were on a dry sidewalk, driver side on ice.
In FWD, nothing, started stepping on the brakes, then a little harder, the right rear tire started spinning on the sidewalk and then the trailer and truck started moving.
The power locks are good units but you have to know how to get them to work sometimes.

 

If you're concerned your PL isn't working right check out the test procedure on page 6 of the service bulletin.

http://www.vernco.com/Powr-Lok/id688.htm

 

"The next time you are a situation like this, try stepping on the brakes some, the tire that is spinning needs some resistance so it will tighten up the clutch pack in the limeted slip."

thanks!

 

Will have to try that next time. I just thought it should lock up when the other side was spinning.

 

That's why it's called a "limited slip" vs a "locking differential" or "locker". Do a search for either one for an explanation and you will find days of reading on the differences. A very misunderstood difference among most people.


Sent from my iPhone

 

I had to go back to see what year your Jeep is.
1964 is more than likely a "Power Lock", same as in my '61 3B.
It's possible to increase the preload on the clutches so you have less problems getting the spinning side to engage.
This also increases some driveabilty problems on pavement in rain or snow.
There was a thread about 2 weeks ago about this.
Do a search, there has been a few posts about changing the clutches, rearranging the parts or even adding more clutch parts to tighten them up.
I belive it was Oldtimer or Nickmil that posted them.

 

Will do thank you much. I was hoping there was something that I can do and not something i was doing wrong. I just looked at the FSM and will try the rolling drag test, were you block one rear wheel and lift the other off the ground and see if it takes more than 40 ft lbs to turn the wheel. With trans in neutral. should have looked at that first.