Can the Pic determine Open or Anti-Spin

[TaterBUG]

Hey Folks, Be Gentle...
I added an image of my rear Diff. My Build sheet says "ANTI-SPIN DIFFERENTIAL REAR AXLE". Does NOT say "Trac-Lok". I am not an Expert in this area and wanted to get feedback from the group.

Can you tell from this Image whether or not this is an "ANTI-SPIN DIFFERENTIAL REAR AXLE" or OPEN?

2023 Willys
NO Tow Package

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[ShadowsPapa]

Hey Folks, Be Gentle...
I added an image of my rear Diff. My Build sheet says "ANTI-SPIN DIFFERENTIAL REAR AXLE". Does NOT say "Trac-Lok". The image shows pins that I assume are for the spider gears and would be an indication of an Open Diff. I am not an Expert in this area and wanted to get feedback from the group.

Can you tell from this Image whether or not this is an "ANTI-SPIN DIFFERENTIAL REAR AXLE" or OPEN?

2023 Willys
NO Tow Package

Your build sheet is king - what it says is what you have.

They put anti-spin in the build sheet. .The other is a marketing term to sound more nifty and important. same thing

This is from my own build sheet and it's definitely the Trac-Lok differential (and yours looks like it as well0

BTW - even a limited slip has spider gears!
They must have the "spiders". That's what connects the motion of the ring gear and carrier to the axles themselves, through the spiders and side gears.
That's how pressure is applied to the clutches when there's a big torque difference.
This is from the predecessor to the differentials we have - and it's limited slip ->

 

[Charles 236]

Exactly right. I have rebuilt the Dana axles in Jeeps, and I recognize the limited slip differential.

Funny story about the spider gears. Many years ago, a friend wanted a "Sure Grip" (limited slip) differential for his '69 Plymouth GTX, so he bought one at a swap meet. It was the complete assembly, gears and housing. He put it in and it only went a few feet before it was slipping completely. No movement at all. He asked me to fix it, so I pulled it apart. Missing was...the cross shafts and pinion gears (the spider gears are technically pinion gears, not to be confused with the pinion gear that mates with the ring gear). I found a set of pinion gears and cross shafts and installed them, which made it work correctly. Someone had "rebuilt" the differential and left out these parts. Moral of the story, carefully inspect any swap meet bargain parts before buying.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Exactly right. I have rebuilt the Dana axles in Jeeps, and I recognize the limited slip differential.

Funny story about the spider gears. Many years ago, a friend wanted a "Sure Grip" (limited slip) differential for his '69 Plymouth GTX, so he bought one at a swap meet. It was the complete assembly, gears and housing. He put it in and it only went a few feet before it was slipping completely. No movement at all. He asked me to fix it, so I pulled it apart. Missing was...the cross shafts and pinion gears (the spider gears are technically pinion gears, not to be confused with the pinion gear that mates with the ring gear). I found a set of pinion gears and cross shafts and installed them, which made it work correctly. Someone had "rebuilt" the differential and left out these parts. Moral of the story, carefully inspect any swap meet bargain parts before buying.

Yeah, those terms get used interchangeably - in the parts books and TSMs, they are indeed pinion gears..
There's differential/side gears and pinion/spider gears, inside the carrier.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Exactly right. I have rebuilt the Dana axles in Jeeps, and I recognize the limited slip differential.

Funny story about the spider gears. Many years ago, a friend wanted a "Sure Grip" (limited slip) differential for his '69 Plymouth GTX, so he bought one at a swap meet. It was the complete assembly, gears and housing. He put it in and it only went a few feet before it was slipping completely. No movement at all. He asked me to fix it, so I pulled it apart. Missing was...the cross shafts and pinion gears (the spider gears are technically pinion gears, not to be confused with the pinion gear that mates with the ring gear). I found a set of pinion gears and cross shafts and installed them, which made it work correctly. Someone had "rebuilt" the differential and left out these parts. Moral of the story, carefully inspect any swap meet bargain parts before buying.

Cross shafts are also called a cross pin or pinion shaft. Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re referring to. It’s usually just a single part, so I might be misunderstanding.

The spider gears that do not ride on the pinion shaft/cross shaft/cross pin are also called side gears.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The spider gears that do not ride on the pinion shaft/cross shaft/cross pin are also called side gears.

The gears on the sides of the carrier that the axles spline into are side gears - or differential gears.

Here's another design -

You can tell this is from Chrysler/Jeep because of the J number for the picture -

An older Dana/Jeep differential, ZJ tech books.......... shows an open differential, no limited slip -

Point is, there's a lot of different designs, all pretty much the same principals and mostly the same parts.
They will all have side gears, pinions, carrier, ring gear, pinion gear and some sort of shaft situation to hold the pinion gears to the carrier since those are what "push" or turn the side gears, into which the axles are spined, to make the axles turn.

There may be 2 or 4 small pinion gears (spiders). they will typically be the smallest gears in the whole assembly.

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