Originally Posted by sibster
Azreal,
I do actually believe we are all singing from the same song sheet...
I belive it must be so, I strongly belive I know how this works and I have no reasons to think you don't.
Yes you are correct the epicyclic does decide torque split.
I agree with you to a point, with a badly worn/weak V/C the car will still drive, but drive badly, as SiB endorses, but lots of the rally cars we see never have any maintenance done on the V/C's centre or rear, and as you know, they are lifed and in competition the life expectancy is quite short, when they are examined and found weak, refreshing the gel and renewing the plates transforms the handling of the car, but if the diff fails catashrophically i.e. no drive through the diff whatsoever you will lose drive....and the car will stop....
Mine was so failed that you could turn it with fingers easily.
Maybe you mean that if centre differential (epicyclical) fails then VC will help to retain some drive for some time - on that I agree, but with working epicyclical and VC that lost all it's silicone fluid the car should still transfer torque to the ground normally, just loosing grip easily. Maybe different diffs front/rear cause something that I don't understand that makes the car loos drive without VC,a part from that I cannot find any reasons.
I belive we are far from main topic, maybe some moderator should move that VC part of this discussion to tehcnical forum? I belive that new uprated gearbox is more interesting in itself to general audience.