Hello,

Just bought my first Mopar product, 2000 Dodge Dakota, manual with the 4.7...

I was looking at Toyota's and Nissan's, this thing is a caged beast in comparison and with the manual you can ge it to sip gas... ****ing awesome..

Anyway; trying to rebuild a trak-lok; I cannot for the life of me figure out how to pressurize the clutch pack enough to install the axle retaining c- clip. I was able to verify that once compressed it all fits but that was only possible when using the conical (the big concave washer, first one you put on the side gears) BACKWARDS by compressing the stack in a vise and install the w-clips. This is the only way I've been able to get that damn axle- c-clip installed and I did it to verify that my new seals and bearings were in all the way.

So- HTF do you compress the clutch stack/side gear to install the axle c-clips?

Also, tuning was mentioned in other posts... what are the effects of one less plate?

 

There's a special tool to compress them. Not sure how you would do it without the tool. If it were mine, I would throw out the POS Trac-loc and replace it with a different limited-slip or locker. I replaced mine with an Auburn because it's cheap and strong.

 

i bought a new trac-loc posi unit (says trac-loc on carrier) and everything went right together I just pushed on axle popped in clips, no special tools required..here call these guys they r axle and transfer case gurus Advantage Driveline (517) 768-8940 Jeff is the master...And the dakota is a beast muahahaha

 

You don't need special tools to replace the whole carrier assembly, but you do if you're just replacing the clutch packs.

 

Hello,

Wanted to post back since there is differing info. on the web. I also called a driveline expert locally who said it cannot be rebuilt while still mounted.

You ABSOLUTELY can rebuild a trak-lok while the carrier is still mounted in the pumpkin, in my opinion it's the easiest way even though some articles make you remove the carrier and ring gear to do this. 2 steps I don't understand.

You do need a special tool but nothing more then $10.00 worth of hardware can't take care of. Sliding in the spider washers was a breeze as well with the cheap tool