Poss. Center Diff Problem

[aleccolin]

New to DSMs I've done some reading and now I just want a confirmation:

I was driving after a rain and noticed that my tires spun when leaving a red light, not at all hard, just like the car was a front wheel drive. It's a 92 GSX.

Is it possible that the center diff is broken, causing the vehicle to operate in FWD mode, but allow the car to be driven more or less like normal? I just got the car, and am working out the bugs, but this is the first time I have noticed this sort of problem, other than some front wheel spinning on gravely tarmac from a stop.

Thanks in advance.

 

[aleccolin]

ttt

 

[pneumo]

You could be right. There's a way to check it. Just jack up the car so only one rear wheel is off the ground. Release the parking brake so the wheel can turn freely. Block the front wheels so the car doesn't roll away from you. Leave the engine off, trans in neutral, and try to turn one of the raised rear wheels. On a normal AWD the wheel will be hard to turn. It should almost feel like the wheel won't turn with light pressure, but if you push harder and the wheel should turn slowly.
Try it with the other wheel, too.

If the wheel spins with no resistance something's broken.