Here it is out of the manual Limited Slip no springs Surgrip has springs.

 

Dude did you not read anything I said. The first pic you posted was an OPEN differental. Every car/truck has one. This is the normal.
A LSD is what the 2nd pic was.

 

Wow dude. Did you not read anything I said either???

Here is are some pictures of a factory open diff and a factory Trac Lok LSD...

Open:

As you can see here, no springs...
OpenFrontView.jpg?t=1249151573

As you can see here, no clutches...
OpenAngleView.jpg?t=1249151590

Here are ALL of the internal parts... (two side gears, two spider gears with thrust washers, and the center pin)
OpenInternalParts.jpg?t=1249151606

Here is the back side of the side gear...
OpenSideGear.jpg?t=1249151622

Trac Lok LSD:

This stamp speaks for itself...
TracLokStamp.jpg?t=1249151646

Here is one side of the clutch packs behind the side gear...
TracLokClutches.jpg?t=1249151669

As you can see here... the track lok does not use the same springs as the Sure Grip...
TracLokFrontView.jpg?t=1249151683

I'm not taking apart my trac lok cause it can be a PITA, but the surface the arrow points to on this side gear is splined on the trac lok side gear...
TracLokSideGear.jpg?t=1249151697

On the trac lok, there are 8 clutch discs and a belleville spring in each of the 2 clutch packs. The belleville spring is shaped like a thrust washer, but is much much thicker and made of spring steel. The belleville spring and 4 of the clutch discs are pinned to the carrier, while the other 4 clutch discs are splined to the side gear. Here is a picture I found doing a google search of this setup...

clutchpacks.jpg?t=1249152261

I drew 3 arrows on it. The bottom left arrow points to the belleville spring, the bottom right arrow points to the pins that pin the belleville spring and the 4 clutches to the carrier, and the top arrow points to the splines that hold on the other 4 clutch discs.

How the trac lok works is those 2 pins hold the clutch packs together while the belleville spring holds tension on the pack. This creates a pre-load on the clutches. From the above pictures, you can see that the side gears and spider gears have wedge shaped teeth... this is so that when torque is transferred through the carrier, the pre-loaded clutches hold the gears still so the only place left for them to go is to climb the wedges, thus pushing out on the side gears and tightening the clutch pack. When there is no torque transfer, there is only the pre-load holding the clutches, which is not enough to stop them from slipping in a turn.

The sure-grip uses the same ideas, but the spring is not with the clutch pack, it is between the side gears like you can see in the OPs picture.

If this doesn't convice you then I give up, because I have provided way more evidence than I needed to to back up my argument.

 

dangdakota... I was just thinking about the origin of the problem. When I rebuilt my trac lok a couple days ago, it was too tight for the spider gears to move without the clutches compressed by the bolt I mentioned earlier. The fact that your's got out of alignment that easily makes me wonder if your suregrip is worn out. Have you ever had one wheel spin on that truck? Or if you jack it up and spin one wheel does the other spin the opposite direction? If either of those are true, and you have the time and money, you should rebuild that LSD before you get it all back together. New LSDs are almost as good as a locker, but when the clutches start to wear out, they become about as useless as an open diff.

Also, because its an LSD, don't forget to put friction modifier in the gear oil when you refill it.

 

No, the LSD was fine before I started working on it. )

Like I said, I'm the one that messed it up due to a lack of knowledge about this rear end. I'm too embarrassed to say it, ha ha ha.

Anyway, I think it's pretty messed up. I don't really see any way to get the bolt in there to compress the clutch. I think as you mentioned that the thrust washers are out of place and the whole clutch assembly seems a little out of place as well. I think I may have to take the unit out and take it to a shop or replace it. A question is, can I replace it with another type or would it have to be the same kind of unit?

 

Okay then I was wrong I was under the impression that a open diff was a limited slip setup my apologies.

 

Yeah, I didn't know if the center spring pack would allow room for a bolt or not, that is just how I compressed the belleville spring to assemble the trac lok. Unfortunatley, I don't know enough about the suregrip to give you any specific tricks to reassemble it. If you can find a manual for it, it will probably tell you how to compress the clutches to make room for moving the spider gears and thrust washers around.

What rear axle do you have and what year and does it have rear ABS? There are usually several kinds of differentials and lockers you could put in.

 

How can I find out which axle it is? The truck is a 1990 LE king cab 3.9 automatic. I believe it has some kind of rear abs.

 

delete

 

How many bolts are holding the cover on and what shape is the cover?