Re: Successful Transplant !

On Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:44:23 -0700, Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>
wrote:

On 10/25/2024 2:51 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Clare Snyder"  wrote in message
news:g12ohjt801lb7phvn7c047l5jvegsiu8ee@4ax.com...
 
My '96Ranger 4 liter 5 speed was my first "limited slip" vehicle.
SZtill have it at 392000km and still love it - but the first thing
that caught my attention was that when you got the rear wheels
spinning is you lost your "rudder". The non-spinner with an open rear
end keeps the vehicle going more or less in a straight line. When both
are spinning the rear end pretty much goes wherever it wants!!!...
------------------------------
 
The same happens to my 91 Ranger's light rear end on ice even without
limited slip. Dirt (and ice) biking gave me the instinctive reflexes to
stay in control with the rear wheels flopping around. Ice on the road
isn't limited to storms, melt water from snow banks freezes when the sun
goes down.
 

Pickup trucks in general (and some cars) are notoriously bad in dirt,
sand, or maybe slippery stuff due to the lack of weight on the rear
axle.  The addition of as little as a couple hundred pounds over the
axle makes a huge difference.  I know this first hand.  My station wagon
was better in the sand (with similar size tires) than most empty pickup
trucks.  My first car was a very light 67 Ford Cortina (English Ford),
It was intended as a "dune buggy" by a previous owner who installed 60s
on the front and 50s on the rear.  It was terrible until I dropped a
couple bags of concrete in the trunk.  It didn't magically turn it into
a dune buggy, but it was pretty good after that.
>
Crew cabs tend to have better weight distribution, but that is offset by
increased overall weight.  Add some decent width tires and they aren't
to bad in the sand.
>
>
--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

My little Ranger has a fiberglass cap, plastic bed liner and heavy
rubber mat totalling almost 300 lbs permanently installed. On ice, you
are right (on a slight slope it can go sideways with no power applied
- posi or no makes no difference. Howver in  snow or sand, or wet
pavement - a "one wheel peel" goes pretty straight, while a "2 wheel
peel" can go in circles. My old Fargo had an open dif and less weight
than the Ranger, and althogh there were times it would not get up the
slippery driveway (even just wet pavement could be a challenge) it
NEVER went sideways under accelleration. I can pretty easily put the
ranger sideways on wet pavement - not to mention loose gravel or sand
(or wet grass). Never had that problem with my open-diff rear wheel
drive Darts, Valiants, Ramblers, or Coronet (sedans or wagons) or the
MGB, TR7, Sunbeam Alpine or other rear wheel drive oddities I've
driven. The "non-friven" wheel makes a pretty effective rudder on
surfaces with any reasonable amount of friction - and you loose that
"rudder" with a good posi or a "locker"