how does a powe divider work

[tanbuddy]

the way that i thought it worked was it acted like a 3rd open differential between the 2 axles to let them both have power all the time but spin at different speeds going around a turn. It would also allow just one axle to spin if 1 was on snow or in the air. Locking it in was locking the 2 axles together so they would both get power if one was on snow and the other pavemetn.

The more i read the more i beleive im wrong, could somene explain how they work

[220cummins]

the way that i thought it worked was it acted like a 3rd open differential between the 2 axles to let them both have power all the time but spin at different speeds going around a turn. It would also allow just one axle to spin if 1 was on snow or in the air. Locking it in was locking the 2 axles together so they would both get power if one was on snow and the other pavemetn.

The more i read the more i beleive im wrong, could somene explain how they work

You're correct by manaully locking them in gives you power at both axles. Otherwise the power goes to the rear axle. Mack power dividers have "peanuts" that when you start slipping on the rear axle the peanuts drop in automatically and lockup the front rear end to give you power to both drives.

[rsb502]

You're correct by manaully locking them in gives you power at both axles. Otherwise the power goes to the rear axle. Mack power dividers have "peanuts" that when you start slipping on the rear axle the peanuts drop in automatically and lockup the front rear end to give you power to both drives.

Thats why you get the "Camelback Hop" in tight corners with an empty truck, the speed differential from the front inside to the rear outside is enough to make it start to lock, it "thinks" your spinning because of the difference in speed, thats why it happens more turning left than right, power goes to left front and right rear first when locked due to driveline torque.

[phildirt]

...not very well---

[Lmackattack]

Few things here..

Power divider when "in" sends power to both axels giving you 2 axels with power at all times. When it's "out" only your rear axel has power. There is a little more to it concerning how the diff is set up and how that power is put to the road.

Mack had both an automatic power divider and manual air operated power divider...both have there good and bad points. Manual let's you lock it in full time untill you unlock it. Good for when you think you may need it, bad for when you didn't think you needed it and get stuck because you didn't lock in. Macks automatic power divider will kick in and out as it sees needed. The down side was you never knew when it was in our out you normaly got thru the mud but if you got stuck sometimes it would disengage and you can't do anything about it....it was a great system tho...

There is also a diff lock so that you can lock the diff in that axel, 100% of power is sent to both sides of that axel when it's in.

When the diff lock was used with a power divider you had a solid live axel and power to the forward axel as well giving you power to 3 corners. Some trucks used in off road have 2 diff locks and a power divider giving you equal power to all 4 corners. This is great untill one wheel gets to much traction and you snap an axel,diff,driveline,.etc...

So for the most part a a power divider and a diff lock is all you need so that theirs always one wheel that can slip and avoid drive line damage...

Hope you can follow that..

[tanbuddy]

I kinda get the idea how they work, however mine must not be working right.

Its a 99 with 46k rears, i think the gear ratios is around a 4.5 or so. I use the truck to plow, the other day i had the bed up while plowing in the lot b/c i was almost out of salt. I noticed that with the divider not locked, both the front and rear axle would both spin about 70 % of the time when i was stuck in the snow. 2 out of 10 just the rear would spin.1 out of ten jsut the front would spin, only if the rear was on pavement and the front was on the windrow of snow. I think it sounded a little funny when it did this.

With the dividor locked both axles spun together as expected.

Is something possibly broke in the rear that my truck behaves this way? It drives great never noticed it doing anyhting wierd.

[rsb502]

Naa, whichever rear corner has the least resistance will spin first when unlocked.

[tanbuddy]

Naa, whichever rear corner has the least resistance will spin first when unlocked.

If the rear is always supposed to be powered how does only the front get power? confusing