Differential height

[Cement Legs]

Is there any performance reason why you would want to have your differential concentric with you wheels at neutral ride height? I'm mostly concerned about the effects on tripod joints.

[Cement Legs]

Is there any performance reason why you would want to have your differential concentric with you wheels at neutral ride height? I'm mostly concerned about the effects on tripod joints.

[romkasponka]

Just think about friction (=lost some Nm) then it have an angle but better weight position. Then tripod have big missalignment or angle it have more space to fall to pieces or dismantle by it self.It gets bigger axial loads (from bearings psition i think).

I have had the same problem on my car.

p.s. sorry for my english http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Denny Trimble]

It's a tradeoff between horsepower losses due to CV angularity, and packaging (wheelbase, CG height, weight distribution, inertias of the car, etc). You'll need to test your CV's to give a good enough answer for the design judges. But from what I've seen and discussed with some fast teams, the power loss is fairly low with tripods and moderate angles.

[Cement Legs]

Off topic... Hey Denny, where were you during '00, '01, '02? (.....Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03, '04, '05) )

[Denny Trimble]

'98 - first quarter on the team, went to Detroit and observed; came back and drove/broke/fixed all summer
'99 - team captain / suspension guy / graduated
'00 - '01: worked in Seattle
'01 - '02: worked in Rochester, NY (girlfriend went to RIT)
'02-current: Grad school at UW