Project Sol-37 - All Wheel Drive CRX del Sol

Drivetrain

The drivetrain consists of a four wheel drive five speed manual transmission, propeller shaft and rear differential from a '00 Honda CRV. The rear axles are hybrids made by using the inboard CV cups from CRV axles and the outer cups and axle shafts from a RT4wd '89 Honda Civic Wagon. Front axles are standard B series Honda Civic parts. The propeller shaft had to be shortened to fit the Sol as it was originally too long.

Future plans involve swapping the CRV propeller shaft and rear differentail with their Civic Wagon counterparts. As luck would have it, there is only a four thousanth (0.004) difference in ratios between the two. The CRV's rear differential has a ratio of 2.529 where the Civic Wagon's rear end is 2.533. If anything, the difference in ratios would send that much more power to the rear. The real reason for the change is to have a consistant power split between the front and rear wheels as well as the luxury of using a limited slip differential at the rear. The CRV's rear differential uses a pump system with a clutch pack that transfers power to the rear wheels when the front wheels slip. While innovative, this system is slow to activate making it mostly usless for competition. The Civic Wagon used a viscous coupler between the transmission and rear differential that provides constant power to the rear wheels. The Wagon's rear differential is similar enough in design to Honda's D series Civics such that LSDs sold for the D series Civics can be fitted into the Wagon's rear differential carrier with minor modification. Using the Wagon's rear differential also affords the use of stronger rear axles. The Wagon's differential is on the left while the differential from a '93 Civic DX is on the right in the image to the right.

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