Differentials.

[cazzer]

Right....I really thought I was right with this, but my mate is so convinced otherwise that I'm starting to doubt myself.

If you mount a diff the wrong way up, will the wheels rotate the same way as the original orientation or will they rotate the opposite way.

[v8ian]

different rotation.

[cazzer]

Are you sure about that or is it a guess?

[spend]

I wonder if an Aussie could answer that question

[rev-erend]

Never mind that - all the oil would run out the breather that would have been at the top

[syncro.]

The tops of the wheels are now at the bottom, of course they rotate the opposite way (provided the input shaft rotation doesn't change)

[cazzer]

Well duh....as you were...I was having a spectacularly thick moment

[Zad]

They proved this on at least one episode of Scrapheap Challenge when the auto gearbox on a dragster they had built failed, leaving only reverse gear. So they inverted the diff and ran like that (slowly).

[cazzer]

Solidworks was my friend


Although if I'd remembered that scrapheap challenge (which I now do) I could have saved a lot of dicking about.