If it's a lock-rite it's crap don't buy one. I guess they have another one now called a power trax no slip that's suppose to be alright though. Might be worth looking at.

 

I personally probably didn't need a LSD anymore than you do but for the once a year I go offroad I wanted one. I just didn't want a open differential so I went with the LSD. Now if I was super tight on money I probably would have either just cleanded my rear diff out and ran it like that until I could afford a new LSD or put a Open diff in. Honestly right now in this last round of repairs I probably have close to 8 grand in my truck. It's a expensive truck and I have a feeling I will be putting $3-500 more into a new dash again sometime soon which annoys me since I put a new one in a year and a half ago.

For the Auburn give this place a call.
http://www.auburngear.com/aftermarke...p;sid=Virginia


Rye Valley Oil & Gear
5807 Charlie Taylor Rd
Sugar Grove, VA24375 USA
Phone: 276-677-3750
Fax: 276-677-3051

They were the cheapest place I found for the Auburn LSD and they were great to deal with. It's where I got mine. I think I paid $357 plus $15 shipping. Well, they told me 15 but only charged me 14 something. Then I ended up having to pay tax since I'm in the same state but you might not have to do that since you are out of state idk. I had it at my house the day after I ordered it but then again like I said I'm in the same state. I then payed $400 to have it installed by one of the guys here who is older. He is known as the man to go to for this stuff and is imo one of the best if not the best mechanics around here. Then they got bearings for me and replaced all that. I'm not sure what I paid for those. They said I should get them as half the time you tear them up taking it apart. I ran my LSD for over a year after having it come apart and just cleaning the parts out and he said everything other than the LSD looked great when he pulled it apart so I didn't have any problems from it. He told me when it broke to fix it right away but lots of guys on PS said they had run it like that for a while so thats what I did.


I don't know where the best price on the Detroit is. I honestly can't remember which place gave me the best price. Another site to check out is Randys Ring and Pinion
http://www.ringpinion.com/Default.aspx

Then there is PORC
http://www.performanceoffroadcenter.com/

There is also 4 Wheel Customs
4wheelcustoms.com

They to me had high prices though but they are supposed to be great to deal with.

As I said the Rye Valley Gear is the cheapest place by quite a bit I found the Auburn. I'm not sure if they carry the Detroit or not if you want that you'd have to ask. I think PORC was the 2nd cheapest but I can't remember if that was the place or not. I called so many I don't know which one was which.


As for rebuilding your factory LSD I'd stay far away from that. Do a search on Pavementsucks.com or I assume on here too. If you rebuild it or replace it with a factory one you will more than likely be doing it again shortly down the road. Getting 100k out of yours you did very well. I haven't heard of many people getting anywhere near that kind of milage out of theirs. There is a good chance yours has been shot for a while.

Another thing if you get a LSD don't run Synthetic fluid. I've read not to run that to just run regular gear oil with the LSD additive.

I personally think since I do mostly street driving that the auburn was the best choice for me but the Detroit seems like a solid unit too. They both are good. The Detroit is slightly more expensive and wont wear out but then again the Auburn will probably last longer than the rest of your truck anyway. Just pick which one you like best. They both are supposed to be really good.

 

Exactly!

LSD stands for Limited Slip Differential.
Posi, Posi-traction, Trac-lock are the manufacturers name for a limited slip style differential.

Now there are different types of LSD's which should not be confused with lockers and spools.

Pretty much there are 2 types of LSD's. Clutch type (most common) and gear type.
All LSD will allow some slip between the wheels. (cornering, hard core mudding and off roading)
They are extremely street-able and are great for mild off roading, snow covered streets. Basic fun stuff.

You have a Clutch style LSD (Trac-lock) It is a decent design and works well for stock and mild off roading. Big tires and abuse will tear it up though. All clutch style LSD will eventually wear out. (Mine is 10 yrs old and still very tight.) Sometime the tires will chirp when cornering and you must use an additional LSD additive to the gear oil or the clutches will stick and chatter.

An Auburn is a heavier duty style clutch LSD

A tru-trac is a gear style LSD. It may be stronger and shouldn't wear out like a clutch LSD. They cost more and aren't common as a stock unit.

Lockers (Detroit locker, lock-right, etc) are a bit of a different animal. They physically lock both axles together under load and don't allow for any slip side to side unless cornering. They are great for off road but are noisy and can be difficult to drive on slippery streets. (I hated mine)

An air locker is the best of both worlds. It locks solid for off roading but unlocks and acts like an open diff for stree use. Jeep used them on Rubicon Wranglers. (very nice)

A Spool is a solid carrier that permanently locks both axle together. No slip ever! Dangerous on the street and prone to snapping axles while cornering. Great for drag racing though. Welding your diff gears together is a chap way to make a spool.

If it was me I would rebuild the original (but I do this stuff for a living and I'm cheap)

As you don't do your own work, take your truck to a place that specialises it diffs and std transmissions. (generallynot an auto tranny shop) and get a second opinion.It's not uncommon for there to be some small filings in the diff. Trac-locks have metal clutches.

I think the tranny shop is seeing $$$ when they look at you and 4k is enough to drop at one shop for repairs.

If you promise to take it easy you can probably rebuild your original with parts and labour for $500

The Auburn and True-trac are better options for heavy duty but cost more.

I wouldn't replace it with an open diff unless yours is seriously F**k, your way low on cash and even then I would get a used carrier if you go that route. I've been to the North East and with the snow you guys can get I don't think you will like the reduced traction.

my 2 cents

 

So the Auburn does not have the gears in them? Only the Detroit True-Trac does? If I'm going to replace the unit, I'd like to at least make sure it's going to be bulletproof like the transmission is now. Obviously I run the 35" tires, so I can see why the stock unitis shredding up. But yes, I really do like the extra traction. The roads can really be ****ty, it would explain why my truck does so good in 2wd. Anyways, I am having another shop look at it. I'll get their opinion. If I have to replace it, I will get the Auburn or the Detroit. I'd like to get the one that has the gears. Thank you for your help hometheater, rabbler, cereal, pa, silver_dodge, and the input kowboymac. All of you, thank you. I'm just getting my truck back tomorrow firstly though. I just want it back, and I want to test drive her. It's been over 3 weeks! And then I'll have people look at the rear when I'm ready to give it back up lol. I have an appointment with new england offroad (i cant escape these new england named places haha)...but I'm not sure if I feel like dropping it so soon. I just dont want any damage to occur to pinion and gears though...but anyway, thats what I plan to do, get it out of the tranny shop. They've gotten their dough, now I want my truck back.

 

why do I bother to post?

 

I knew I was forgetting somebody in the post, thank you too aim4squirrels. Don't be bumming, you all helped me out. I feel like either the Detroit or the Auburn will be the way to go. If there isn't too much of a price different of install between the two, I'm getting the detroit, but because as weird as its sound, I cant afford it, in the long run that is, for any of this **** to break again. Thanks again

 

If you know enough about them to rebuild one how in the world can you sit there and say you'd recommend rebuilding the original? I can't tell you I know enough to rebuild one and even I know enough that there is no way I'd pay money for one of those pieces of crap. When I started doing research on it after having mine break it seems like everyone I talked to and I mean almost everyone with a factory LSD had had theirs go out on them some at low miles some at fairly high miles like 60-100k. One thing in common is almost all of them had had those clips break off which I'm guessing is what broke off of his but I don't know that for sure. They are just a super crappy design and anyone that would put money into keeping the crappy original in there is an idiot. If you can rebuild it for $30 that might be worth it but for him that has to pay a shop to do it all it's in no way worth it.

As for the install if it was me I'd pay a shop like I did to install it. The rear end is something that has to be pretty much exact and you need to have some knowledge of what you are doing along with some special tools. It was one thing that was worth it to me to get the shop to do. If you really needed to save money I would have taken the transmission out and gotten the new one from the shop and put it in myself before I would have attempted this myself. If you want to try it thats up to you but I personally wouldn't. If it's slightly off you can mess it all up. Or if you don't get it clean or something you could do the same. If it's a good shop its worth it for them to do it.


As for the Detroit vs the Auburn yes you are right the Auburn is the clutch type and the Detroit is the gear type. I thought at first the Detroit was the way to go as I didn't ever want to mess with it again kind of like the transmission so I thought I should go with the Detroit. Well, I started reading up on them which is something you should do and it seems like the Auburn was just way more streetable. Most places I talked to recommended me the Auburn as well as several people I talked to. Way more than recommended the Detroit. It also helped the Auburn was $100-200 cheaper. I was told by pretty much everyone that while the Auburn is a clutch type and can wear out it should last a ton longer than the factory one. The factory ones just break because they are a crappy design. I have no doubt that the Auburn will probably last longer than my truck lol. I haven't had it long enough to tell but from everything I've read it should last way longer than the factory one.

I've read a few people complaining of busting the detroits. They didn't wear them out just broke them. Now if you aren't driving like a idiot or beating the snot out of them offroad chances are this wont happen but it still worried me. I hadn't read any problems of people having with the Auburn.

The other thing some shops told me about with the Detroit is that something about they are finding in trucks with manual transmissions that it's kind of banging a little when you shift gears. They said it's not really as noticable on the autos. This worried me as I didn't want it banging and messing up the tranny. I don't think it could but that still worried me slightly. All in all it just seemed like for a mostly street driven truck the Auburn was a better unit so thats why I went with that. Either one you choose should be a nice unit though and way better than the factory junk thats in there now.

Just read up on the pros and cons of each on here, Pavementsucks.com, etc and see which one fits your needs the best. I did lots and lots of reading and then decided to go with the Auburn. I think this is one of those deals kind of like the transmissions where you need to do your own research not go by what the salesman at the shop is telling you.

If I worked at a shop that sold the factory Trac Lock LSD's I could sit there and tell you how great and heavy duty they are all day and how they were better than anything else out there and you'd never have another problem. Kind of like what dealers do. This would in turn probably get you to buy it and I'd make my money and you'd still have a crappy lsd that you probably wouldn't know until 30-60k miles down the road. If I was selling a product I could sit there and lie to you about it all I wanted and tell you how heavy duty it is weather it is or not. This is why I said you needed to get a parts list of that tranny as there is a good chance it doesn't have half the isssues fixxed that need to be fixxed. It may but there is also a chance it doesn't. I could make my old broken tranny look pretty and nice on the outside if I wanted that still doesn't make it any good. I don't want to see you get ripped off with the LSD or anything really so while I may seem harsh I really think you should do some research and see what others liked and had good luck with. There is a ton of info on here and PS.

 

Hometheater, I appreciate your sincere enthusiasm, and the work you put in to help me especially. I am going with the Auburn because YOU said so, thank you man.

 

****Alright guys I'm going to get my truck right now! Sweet!!! I'm gonna get her all cleaned up now, I'll tell you about about how she rides when I'm back lata!

 

That's good to hear. Hope everything works out.