What does a car differential lock mean?
1 Answers
An automotive differential lock is a component that, when one driving wheel slips, locks the differential housing and the axle shaft into one unit, causing the differential to lose its differential function and transferring all torque to the other driving wheel. The differential lock can be considered as a differential with an automatic locking function. Differential locks come in various forms, commonly including friction plate type and cone type, with their effectiveness determined by the locking coefficient. For most full-time 4WD vehicles, due to the presence of a central differential, when a driving wheel slips, the engine's power is entirely consumed by the slipping wheel. In this case, the differential lock must be manually operated to lock the central differential housing and the axle shaft into one unit, causing the differential to lose its differential function and thereby transferring torque to the other driving axle.