I know its nice to look at, but its an absolute dog to drive, that is, the couple times a month I drive it.

I need your honest opinions:

Locker or Complete True trac(Posi)?

3.73 or straight to 4.10's?

This 8.8" Rear End Rebuild Kit

Or This 8.8" Rear End Rebuild Kit


what gear oil do I need, and the average going labour cost for this kind of job.

thanks guys.

Specs: 4r70w ford 8.8 2wd

 

What size tires? If they're bigger than 31s go straight to 4.10 but only a locker if you're mostly offroading.

 

If your not pulling anything over 3000 pounds I would choose the 3.73

 

thats the thing, 33's in the summer, 235's in the winter.

 

with the 5.0 being slightly over geared wont hurt anything. go with the 4.10s

 

Since you have a 302, 4.10 will be your best bet. 3.73 still won't keep that 302 happy on 33"s.



I feel ya about 3.08's! That's what my 94 F150 has, with a 5 speed standard, and the 300 straight 6. Isn't as bad as some might think, but it's got no kick to it.

Cruises nicely around 1700RPM @60mph though. I am on stock tires.

 

Sooner or later those winters will wear out and then you can get bigger winter tires.

3.73 gears is what all 5.0 trucks should have been delivered with IMO. The motor doesn't make any usefull torque below 2000rpm and the auto transmissions have very deep overdrive ratios(compared to the manuals), so 4.10s are just getting into the sporty range even with stock 29" tires. The only downside here is you'll get used to the power the truck has with the winters on it and be all bummed out when summer comes and you lose it... and wish you had gone for 4.56!

 

k so it looks like 4.10's. Should I put a locker in or just a limited slip of somesort?

thanks guys

 

How do you use the truck? If it's mostly street get an LS or a true posi like the Detroit trutrac and save your tires, a locker is harder on tires on the street and more difficult to drive on snow covered roads because the rear end will always be skating around on you.

 

how does a truetrac differ from any other posi or LS? all this confuses me. What I know is that there are Lockers, Posi(LS), or Opens diffs,

 

Truetrac uses helical gears to achieve lockup, while most other Posi (limited slips) use clutches that wear out and require special fluids. The truetrac can put more power to the one wheel that is gripping before breaking both loose.

 

I ditched my 3.08 gears about 10 years ago for some 3.55 gears. Its much better with the 31 10.50 tires. I really wish I had 3.73 though. When I finally get the 5.8 swap done, I think the 3.55 gears will be just fine though. I have LS or traction lock. Thats what I suggest you go with. Its a smooth operation and the clutch packs etc are replacable. I've had the ratcheting type diff before and did not care for it at all.

 

People often use the terms Posi and Limited Slip interchangably but they're technically different devices. For the most part power flowing through a drivetrain is like water flowing downhill.. it always takes the path of least resistance, so with open and clutch type LS diffs you get more power going to the wheel with the least traction so performance ranges from very lousy with an open diff to not half bad depending how tight you LS clutch packs are. A true Posi behaves in the opposite way.. it uses a complicated gear arrangement to send the greater portion of power to the wheel with more traction, so overall it performs much better in low traction environments. Both of these devices are usually very quiet and smooth because they're always engaged so there are no locking and unlocking clunks and bangs that you can get from a full locker.

 

Those truetracs are really tempting, I like the idea of maintenance free without the clutch packs