Rebuild Trac lok or buy new differential?

dec322

Member
Feb 11, 2006
401
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Bham AL
The car is stock except for full exhaust. I'm going to be putting in 3.73 some time soon and I'm wondering about my Trac lok. I only get one mark when spinning the wheels but if I jack the car up and spin one wheel the other spins too. I'm assuming it needs a rebuild.

Is it worth rebuilding the trac lok or should I just save my money and buy an Auburn limited slip? I don't go to the track and the car is a daily driver.
 
I won't be doing my gear install so I won't be pulling anything out of my rear (??).

How long (generally) will a rebuilt trac lok hold up? What is the point of a new diff? Any difference between eaton and auburn?
 
A rebuilt one will last as long as your last one did. If your bearings are all in perfect shape, all you will need to do is replace the clutches. If you get the Ford Racing kit, it comes with instructions that also tell you how to shim it extra tight to ensure no slippage with hard load.

Don't get confused when it comes to the term "rebuilt". All that means is that the bad parts of a component are replaced. In the case of a diff, the clutches and sometimes the bearings are replaced.

I rebuilt my rear end and am doing it again with a 31 spline chunk. It is quite simple and easy to do. It will work just as good as a brand new one, because that is essentially what it is.
 
the point of a new diff. is that the spiders etc are usually an upgraded material, the cluthes/cones are superior than oem. an auburn uses a cone type clutch that works very well at equalizing traction, the only downside is that once they are worn out, they cannot be rebuilt. an eaton posi uses carbon fiber clutches with heavy duty preload springs, and hardened internals. they work very similar to an auburn for performance, however they can be rebuilt. i personally prefer eaton just for that reason. mine works very well at painting even strips on the road. that being said, both of these diffs come at a price.
 
the point of a new diff. is that the spiders etc are usually an upgraded material, the cluthes/cones are superior than oem. an auburn uses a cone type clutch that works very well at equalizing traction, the only downside is that once they are worn out, they cannot be rebuilt. an eaton posi uses carbon fiber clutches with heavy duty preload springs, and hardened internals. they work very similar to an auburn for performance, however they can be rebuilt. i personally prefer eaton just for that reason. mine works very well at painting even strips on the road. that being said, both of these diffs come at a price.

Assuming he has damaged carrier gears, if not...then he just needs new clutches. If shimmed correctly, the OEM Trac Loc works fine, especially for street/daily driver applications. I know many people who use the stock trac loc on 11-10 second cars. If this was a trailered track car only, then yes a solid rear dif would be the way to go..but for daily driver cars that see the track the OEM setup is fine. Again, IF the clutches are shimmed correctly to be tighter.
 
Well, I've decided to just save my money to buy an eaton. I plan on having the car forever and eventually supercharging it. Plus I don't feel like having the rear taken apart just to put it back at the same strength. I'll just sell one of my children on ebay.

Well, probably not.:shrug:
 
It seems as if rebuilding the trac lok is easy. What about pulling it out and putting it back in. Since it will already be open for gears (which I'm not installing) then the trac lok needs to be addressed. The problem is that I'm not going to the shop to get the trac lok and then give it back to them after I rebuild it. It would also be my luck that it is pulled and needs to be totally replaced. Then I'm screwed b/c I don't currently have the money for a replacement.