How Clutch Type Differentials Work

Very generally speaking, differentials are thought of in two types, open and limited slip. But if you take a look at limited slip differentials, there are 3 main types for automotive performance: Viscous differentials, torque biasing or helical differentials, and clutch type limited slip differentials.

Those three types of differentials all behave differently, and have different applications where they are ideal. Of the three, the clutch type is probably the most complex but it also gives you the greatest ability to tune the way that the differential works.

When we started running a rally car about 15 years ago, we very quickly realized how important differentials were to getting a rally car to work properly, and we started trying different set-ups etc.

The initial set-up that we were relatively happy with was a Cusco rear differential, and a Version 6 STI front torque biasing differential. But we were having some odd behaviors with the car, and it seemed like the front differential wasn't working the way that we expected. At one point, we had a conversation with Cusco about the issue, and they gave us a lot of information to consider, and we ended up having them set up a front differential for us to try.

Once it was in the car, we finally had the set-up that we were looking for, and we have never looked back. We have worked with Cusco for the differentials in our Rally car ever since. And given how helpful Cusco was, we have started calling them when we need to make a change to one of the cars we are running, or when a customer wants to install a differential. One thing that we learned was first, how many options there were when you start looking at a clutch type differential in terms of type, but also in terms of set-up.

For this video, we got a lot of information from Cusco USA, and they even sent us a differential to use so that we could take a look at the inner workings of the differential and how it works.

If you have any questions at all, you can find Cusco USA on the web at http://www.cuscousainc.com/

And you can also find the differentials that we talk about in the video on our web-site here:

Cusco Differential

Thanks for watching and Stay Tuned!