I just purchased a Rubicon last weekend and took it out Saturday. I read numerous articles citing its improved limited-slip abilities over the older Foreman's. However, when climbing a spoil bank on Saturday, I discovered that the tire with the least amount of traction always spun while the other one remained completely motionless. Has anyone else seen this behavior? I was definitely hoping for a 4x4 rather than a 4x3 like my Foreman S is.

 

I Just discovered the same thing about my Rubicon. I went to my Dealer and he looked in all his manuals and as far as he can determine it shouldn't do that. It is suppose to transfer power from the wheel that slips to the wheel that grips. He wants me to bring it in so he can tear it apart and see what's wrong. When I find out any info I'll let everyone know.

 

There is nothing wrong at all. You can even show this by jacking up the entire quad and grabbing a tire and giving it gas. The one WITH traction(in your hand) will just sit there. The new diff is slightly better than the old style but is still 3wd.

 

Damn. After reading reviews I thought it was going to be much better than the old style diff. It seems like an objective writer/tester would discuss the fact that the "new and improved" differential is, in fact, just as bad as the old one.

I like everything about the bike except for that. Guess I can get the front locked, but that sucks for everyday riding and probably wears the hell out of lots of parts.

 

Thats interesting. So is the Rubicon in a sence 'turning off' the wheel that is stuck? Redistributing the power to the other three wheels?

 

 

I thought the rubi had the same differential as the Rancher. I can drive my left tires into the mud in our dredge pond and when i see the left front tire start to spin the right front engages and im outa there. I love it.

01 Rancher 350 FE1

 

On the Rubicon and Rancher if you pull the front brakes when the one tire is spinning it will usually cause the other tire to catch and get traction.

 

shumdit, I tried that, hoping it would work, but it only made the the tire with traction "twitch". It seems more like an open differential than a true limited slip. Does anyone know if there is a way to adjust the cams to make it more aggressive?

 

Sapo- Some people have suggested that by replacing the cone spring in the diff with shims you could make the diff into a locker. I think this is a cheap way to get a locker (if it actually works, since I think it is just a theory at this point), but that is not what I would personally prefer. I wonder if leaving in the cone spring, but adding a thinner shim would increase the pressure on the cams and bringing it closer to locking but not to a point where it is truly locked, that is it would allow some slippage, but less than what it does now. I am hoping some mechanically inclined and slightly brave AP diff owner will try it and give us some feedback.