How differential in automobile works?

Question

How differential in automobile works?

Answer 1

The differential is a gear system that transfers power from the drive shaft to the driving axles. It also permits one driving wheel to turn faster than the other to prevent skidding and scuffing of tires on turns.

Power is relayed from drive shaft to pinion gear. From pinion gear to ring gear. From ring gear to attached differential case, pinion gears and side gears, then from side gears to driving axles.

Answer 2

It's nearly impossible to figure out from pictures, or a description.  The best way I can describe it is this:  A differential has two wheels geared to EACH OTHER using bevel gears that are mounted in a carrier.  If both wheels are rolling, the bevel gear shaft turns with the carrier at the same speed.  What this does is, it average the speed of the wheels, and the carrier in the middle has to be turning at the average speed of the two wheels.

also, because the gears are all the same size, the torque on the two wheels is always the same.  Most people cannot understand this.  This is the reason why only one tire spins when you get stuck.  It's because the torque on the other tire is the same as the tire that's spinning.  People sometimes think it's because the torques are different, but the same size gears in the diff aren't capable of modifying torque from one wheel to the other.

So - in a car, the engine actually drivers the carrier.  So the engine dictates that the carrier is turning at some speed, and then the differential demands that the tires turn at the same AVERAGE speed as the carrier, with the same torque going to both wheels.

As I said, many people cannot grasp that the torque going to the two wheels has to be the same, or why.  If they post in this thread, don't believe it.