My thought is that the locker will engage the instant there is presure applied to the ring gear (achieved only in 4x4). The force of the cross pin against the two center halves will push them outward , locking them to the two outer pieces , locking the two axles together.
I don't see how the turning radius , wheel dia. Or anything else has to do with whether or not it will lock or unlock!
I am looking for education , so correct me if I'm wrong !
You've got it absolutely right as far as actuation under acceleration load. I think you might be missing an important aspect: It will also lock under braking or engine braking- it's one of the questions I asked Torqmasters about. As she said in the email I posted, the unit never really 'unlocks' but it will allow one wheel to over-run the other **as long as there is
no load applied during that 'over-run' situation** So, even in 2wd, if you hit the brake and one wheel starts to slip- it locks. She (Cora) also assumed that the P500 has a CVT that will actually 'coast' - I did correct her on that. Being that our machines never 'coast' there is always torque being applied, unless you are very carefully maintaining speed, otherwise, there is either acceleration load, or deceleration load being applied to the diff. in 4wd...... 2wd is the only time the diff would see it as a 'coasting' or no load situation. But here's the thing, as Hondasrule so brilliantly pointed out: If the front wheels only need to differentiate by 1/4 of a turn in
complete steering locked full round in a circle turn, that's really only 1/8 of a wheel revolution when shared between the two wheels! It's really nothing! There is easily that much torsional 'spring' in the axles, and how often do you drive in a complete circle on dry pavement? So, all this time I've been caught up in the 'definitely don't want a spool' mentality, it never occurred to me to actually do the math for
this particular machine! Kudos to
@hondasrule!