I have a 4WD as seen in the signature with the 3.55 LS axle. Is the front axle LS as well? Many trucks only put them on the rear while leaving the front axle open.

Some trucks use open axles for both the front and rear and use Brake Limited Slip which sometimes can be beneficial over mechanical limited slip.

My 2008 Sport Trac did this as well as my 2005 Pathfinder and 2004 Crew Cab Titan. With the Sport Trac and Pathfinder, you could turn off the vehicle stability control and traction control, yet leave the BLS in tact for sand, snow and mud.

Now I found that the F150 also uses BLS or as they say, brakes the slipping wheel. However it's turned off completely when traction control is turned off for deep snow, mud, and sand.

So if there's no BLS on the front axle, I'd hope they'd have a mechanical LS on the front axle as they do on the rear. I never read of this.

Now here's a question, how does this electronic limited slip work in conjuction with the mechanical limited slip on the rear?? I would think it would be one or the other, not both.

Thanks in advance for the information.

 

All 4wd F150s come with an open 8.8 front diff. You really don't want a locker of LS in front unless a hard core off-roader. Vehicle has a tendency to go straight even with wheels turned in slippery conditions.

 

Open differential, but brake applied limited slip can be used in 4WD. I'm not sure if it is.

 

Thanks guys. I guess the BLS will work on the front axle as long as I don't have to turn traction control off.

But how does this BLS work with a mechanical LS on the rear differential. That's got me curious.

 

Surprisingly well. And I used to hate (and still do sometimes) the Traction Control system. basically, if the LS fails (i.e. the wheel starts to slip), the TCS applies a slight braking force to the slipping wheel (simulating traction, thus shifting a little more power to the other wheel).

I had a chance to test this out (sorry no pics), when I inadvertently went mudding up a hill last month. The TCS kept the truck moving strait up the hill, even though it wanted badly to slide sideways. Props to Ford, even though the TCS is annoying at times, it actually works quite well in certain situations.