cheerokee front drive shaft

[avyoung]

I will conclude my posts on this subject with this. If you are in 4wd then the stress of moving the weight of your vehicle is distributed between both shafts, when in 2wd the stress if through 1 shaft therfor the front is designed to only take part of the stress were the rear must be able to take 100% of the stress.

 

[Snitty]

Towing Capacity???

.. and that stress is in the form of torque...

and if you jack the front up... leaving the rear on the ground... the rear will NOT get 100% of the powertrain's torque... if it did, then that leaves 0% for the front.. and the front WILL spin... so there is a split... gearing doesn't split torque, gearing changes the torque.

 

[graewulf]

OK, i must be missing something then, i just can't comprehend how the torque can change like that... in my mind, if in 2wd 100% toque goes to the rear, how does engaging the other shaft suddenly change the torque to 50%? the rear is still connected exactly as it was in 2wd, this is what isn't making sense.

 

[Snitty]

this explaination is disreguarding torque loss from the driveshafts and such... if a powertrain produces 200lb-ft of torque.... in 2wd, the rear is getting 100%, obviously 200lb-ft.... and when in 4wd... the rear will now get 50% and the front will get 50%... 100lb-ft and 100 lb-ft... if the powertrain only produces 200lb-ft... there is no way that the wheels can recieve more than that

 

[graewulf]

i realized that i'm confusing torque with horsepower... one is the cause, the other the result... thats why torque is split.. the HP isn't...