The Differential is the “brain” of your drivetrain. Its primary feature is allowing your wheels to rotate at different speeds while still receiving power from the engine.

If you didn’t have one, your tires would chirp, skip, and eventually snap an axle every time you tried to pull into a parking spot.

• Pinion Gear: The small gear at the end of the Drive Shaft. It receives power from the engine and turns the larger Ring Gear.

• Ring Gear: A large, circular gear that sits on the differential case. Its size relative to the Pinion determines your Gear Ratio (e.g., a 4.10 ratio means the drive shaft spins 4.1 times for every 1 rotation of the tire).

• Spider Gears (Side & Pinion Gears): These are the magic makers. They sit inside the “cage” and allow the left and right axles to rotate independently.

• Differential Case: The housing that holds all these gears in a bath of heavy-duty Gear Oil.