what do they mean when

what do they mean when they say you have wound the axle up
Twizzle

my interpretion is when you have diff lock engaged and the axles which should be able to do different speeds through center diff whilst cornering ,cant because diff is locked, so a strain is built relevant to grip wheels have

I usually consider a wound up axle or transfer box an item that will fail soon, resulting with oil and bits of metal showered upon the road.

When the viscous coupling on my softdash transfer box seized up, the front and rear axles were effectively locked together.

This resulted in a weird "skipping" feeling as the wheels on one axle would jump to release the tension that had built up. It was so weird that I only drove a few miles before calling the RAC.

Fortunately no harm done, and I was able to get a recon coupling from a guy somewhere in the midlands who specialises in doing them, mainly for Freelanders.

Only it's not just he axle, but the transmission as a whole, because when you go round a corner typically the rear wheels try to follow a slightly smaller arc than the front. You'll notice vibration, wear and tear on the tyres and transmission components, and poorer fuel consumption typically.

All the metal components within the drive train will be under so much torsional force that they will literally twist, a little bit of twist, if too much is built up this will result in them going past the elastic limit of the material, permantly deforming, slightly further still and something will snap - generally seen as not the best thing to occur

if it doesnt happen that way it could strip out the splines on drive shafts, break ujs etc ... overall there is a variety of way to break things.

Whatever is the weakest will go first

what she said ^

back in the days of yank powered cars, many run leaf springs.
its when you put lots of power down through the wheels, torque reaction tries its hardest to wind the leaf springs up thus winding the axle up with them..
severe cases caused the propshaft to to pop out the gearbox.
old school methods to stop this resulted in after market "anti tramp" bars bolted to the axle or leaf springs and the undersides of the chassis/body..
this was fine in principle but if you had different pivot points with anti tramp bars to centreline of axle to front spring shackle point, then all sorts of weird happenings went on...
time evolved axle locations into early discovery type suspension, basic but strong,
but in cars they opted for a chassis mounted diff and 2 indipendent suspension units - 1 for each drive wheel being held in place by simple but effective wishbones arrangement reducing most attempts for that hub to twist or "wind up"
I believe the separating of each drive hub from its driving central diff helps negate torsional forces also.

on a personal note, I used to weld the rear leaf springs together whilst under load to negate the leafs of the spring moving whilst racing on short ovals, it was a simple form of traction bars but never involved in adding to the suspension componants as it was not allowed...the reduced action of spring suspension movement massively increased the ability to "put the power down" and much improved grip....it was not a car to go to tescos in after all..
simply explained as - It worked for me..

trax said:

what she said ^

Click to expand...

if its a defender / disco etc if you drive around in diff lock on the road you will bit winding the box up as the stresses cannot be relieved through the diffs as they are "locked" together.

The diffs will distribute the torsional movement around so as to remove torsional stress from the drive train

(it almost sounds like I know what I am talking about.... I dont mind you!!)