Rear End Types

Of Course you know that different manufacutrers make different rear ends, and I am only going to briefly menttion that the best all around rear end you can drop in your race car or souped up road racer would be a Ford 9 inch rear end, The first and most important point to this is "the ease of changing gears, and being bullet proof makes the 9 inch one of the most hunted out all all the rear ends out there, secondly, you can pretty much stuff any gear you want into a ford 9 inch rear and still have room to spare, most of the chevy rears and chrysler rears require modifications to accept gearing that a racer needs. So enough about what type of rear end to go with if rules allow, now to the important stuff.

OPEN DIFFERENTIAL: This Gearing setup can be used on pretty much any rear end, here is how it works: the input pinion turns which rotates the Ring gear and cage, mounted to the cage is a pair of spider gears that mesh with gears on the end of the axles, when the car is driven straight, both wheels turn at the same speed with the same torque, as the car enters a turn, the inside wheel to the turn slows down while the outter wheel speeds up, this creates very little drag and helps steer the car around the turn. power is still given to both wheels.

LIMITED SLIP: This type of gearing is vey similar to the open differential with the addition to springs and clutches, as both wheels turn at the same rate the clutch is not used, both tires get the same torque and power, The inside wheel of the turn also slows down while the outside wheel speeds up. The difference is that when one wheel speeds up due to loss of tracktion, the springs push the clutch assembly together, and gives more power to the wheel with grip and less power to the tire with no grip until the condition changes to both wheels getting traction or grip.

LOCKED REAR END: A locked rear end differs from the open differential in this way, The input pinion turns the Ring Gear and Spool, the axle ends are mounted with in the spool locking them solid to the ring gears speed, This is known as a posi rear end, or locked rear end, if the car goes into a turn, both wheels travel at the same speed, if one tire loses traction, the other wheel will only have traction.

RETAINING THE AXLES: Just an honorable mention is how axles are retained within the axle housing, some axles use press fit bearings on the ends of the axle tubes, which hold the axle assembly in place. Other Methods of retaining the axles are C-Clips, which are in the shape of the letter C that clamp over a machined grove of the end of the axle and are very close to the cage that holds the Ring gear, another method of retaining the axles is the Grand National Style, which uses nutted snouts on the end of the axle tubes to hold the lug housing and a plate is bolted on the end, which traps the axle in the housing, the hubs are splined and the axle is splined also, this powers the hubs and turns the wheels.