New member, gear ratio help needed 99 gv 2.0 TD Mazda engine

[Daniel88]

Hello everyone,
I've been wreaking my head trying to find some relevant info allover the Internet but it seems that I'm the only one with this problem. Basically the gear ratios are different between the two axles, making the rear tires spin faster than the front. The speedometer seems to be accurate and the rear diff it's a torsen LSD (not sure if it's standard) . I'm only able to use 4wd on a very loose surface, as soon as I go on a harder surface, the front wheels have to stop every few seconds to keep up with the rear. I'm enjoying the LSD and I wouldn't like to get rid of it but I'm not sure if I can change the ring gear for the same size as the front so I wouldn't have to deal with this any more. Both front and rear diffs look oem and don't seem to be tampered with from the outside. As soon as I get a chance I'm going to measure the diff ratio on both diffs and it would help if I had the right figure that came as standard (4.3:1 from what I have found, I hope that someone can confirm). Any suggestions for curing my problem are much appreciated. Thank you

[Daniel88]

I've attached a link to a video, if you look closely at the front wheel, you can see how it stops briefly after getting out of the puddle until the car stops all together. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqqvgj2ittd32 ... 3.mp4?dl=0
Thanks again,
Daniel

[zook123]

Isn't it just the other wheel spinning?

[Darrell]

My research/info also comes back as 4.3-1 ratio. I've never heard of a limited slip diff fitted as standard to any of the grand vitara's. I'd never heard of torsen LSD's either but found a video on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEiSTzK-A2A

I still can't get my head around how it's works though

[Daniel88]

Basically works on the principle that a worm gear can spin a spur gear but not the other way round. It's never "locked" so to speak, just transfers whatever torque the spinning wheel can put down to the other wheel that has grip and multiples that torque 4 times when doing that and keeps on doing that (transferring from one wheel to the other) so fast that the wheels spin at the same time and acts like a locked diferential. Only disadvantage is that if one of the wheels is off the ground and doesn't have what torque to transfer, it acts like a open diferential. I know all of this info because my daily driver has the same type of LSD fitted from factory. Regarding the grand vitara, there isn't much info about trimm levels and optional extras, that's why I can't find any info if the LSD is standard or not. From the outside, the casing looks the same as a open diferential one, only if you take the cover off you can tell if it's LSD or not. I hope this helps