What are the differences in a 1983-1992 case and a 1993-1996 case for the dana 44 TTB. I have a case from a 1986 and was wanting to build it and swap it into my 1996 but I saw the master kits are different for those two age groups. Now I am not sure if the swap will work or if the differences are something that would prevent the swap. Thanks.

 

Are you talking about the third member differential?

if so, 80-96/7 D44, D44HD, and D50 TTB third members will interchange. The only difference I'm aware of is 80-82 held the stub shaft in with bolts instead of c-clips.

 

Thanks. That's exactly what I was referring too. I just got thrown off by the different master kits. When ordering the front gears, I assume I need reverse cut and short pinion?

 

Reverse cut yes, not sure about short pinion. Afaik the TTB 44 has just the one set of gears. If going from 3.55 to 4.10 or lower, you'll need a new carrier.

 

Thanks. I knew about the break at 3.92. Looking at a trutrac.

 

Do it. I love the tru-trac in mine. It's paired with a Detroit locker in the rear. With a crawl ratio of 79 to 1, i can go nearly anywhere in that bronco.

 

Glad you said that. I having been debating the detroit locker in the rear but she is also my daily. I had a spool on my 74 but never ran her on the road. The internet is full of mixed stories on the locker on pavement and I want to believe if you respect the locker you will be fine but like I said no personal experience.

 

While I haven't dailied it for a couple years, I did and will again. It's an 85 with a beefy 300-6 and np435 trans. 4.56 gears and 37" swampers.

My experience is that the Detroit is fully streetable. It will clunk back in sometimes, which jerks you a bit, but it's not bad once you know what it is. In the rain, snow, or ice, it is VERY important to never accelerate in a tight turn like in the city. If you were to accelerate halfway through the turn, the locker could lock, and send you in the direction of the rear wheels, not the way your fronts are turned. This can send you into oncoming traffic or worse.

as you said, respect it, and you'll have no problems.

 

Pretty sure that will be the direction I go in unless I tru-trac front and rear. Lots of rain in Florida.

 

I agree with this. I've had Detroits in the back of a CJ5, F-150 and Early Bronco. All got lots of summer street driving, and the CJ5 and F-150 were daily driven in winters too.

A common but completely wrong misconception. Accelerating or decelerating has NOTHING to do with an automatic locker locking or unlocking. They will ALWAYS unlock freely and allow the outside tire to overrun any time it wants, no matter how hard you are on the gas (or not).

However this is still true, but it's not because accelerating will cause it to lock. When you are going around a corner the locker unlocks and quits driving the outside tire. That means you have one wheel drive. If you get on the gas too hard (and sometimes that means "at all") you will break the inside tire loose. When the inside tire catches up to the speed of the outside tire the locker will relock. This will not cause you to go straight though. It will tend to break the outside tire loose as well and make you spin out. And again, the relocking is strictly due to wheel speed, it has nothing to do with being on the power (except that getting on the power and spinning the inside tire is one way to make the wheel speeds match up).

I agree 100%. I personally would have no concerns about daily driving an automatic locker in the rear, summer or winter. And I'd have no concerns putting one in the rear of my younger son's vehicle. He and I both pay attention to a vehicle. On the other hand, I'd never allow one in my wife's or older son's cars. They both see cars as appliances that you shouldn't have to think about. You do need to "drive to the vehicle" with a rear auto locker. But if you are able and willing to do that, it isn't hard to do.

 

Even though I'm a big fan of rear automatic lockers, for most trucks I think a TrueTrac is a better choice. An automatic locker can be driven on the street, but it takes some attention (as described above). A TrueTrac (from all reports, I've never driven one) just has good manners. So it can be something anyone can drive.

One reason I'd move away from a TrueTrac (and go with a locker) is if I really valued the positive performance. For rock crawling especially, where it's not uncommon to lift a tire, a TrueTrac is no where near as effective as a locker. But as long as both tires get some traction a TrueTrac should be all you ever need.

And I should point out that no differential is as stable as an open diff when the road is slippery. An open diff will typically only spin one tire, leaving the other one rolling which makes it try to stay going straight. Any traction-aiding diff can spin both tires which makes the tires not care which way they go, making spinouts a bigger risk. An open diff might not allow you to go anywhere, but it is best at preventing spinouts (and TrueTracs are better at that than automatic lockers).

 

Thanks for all the input. I think my path will be the tru-trac. 2 reasons. Sometimes my wife does drive the truck (and after the death wobble incident in my jeep she will leave me if my truck slides out from under her on a wet road ) and where I live it's dirt and mud when we go wheeling. The only rock we see is the gravel in the driveway.

 

I had a '71 Ranchero with a 351C (built with 2V heads & 4V compatible manifold), built C4 with 3.91 gears and a DAPCO No-Spin (Detroit Locker). It did clunk at slow speeds in parking lots when in a tight turn but not objectionable. The only caveat was you could not romp on it in a tight corner on the street. No. Not at all. Inside tire would break loose, then match speed with the outside tire. You then broke the outside tire loose and looped it at least 90 degrees, most of the time was 180 or more. If you drive sanely (like we all should do) you won't have any trouble out of it.

That might be the downside to it but the upside is it's total dependability. Just my $0.02 USD worth.

 

It's sorta disingenuous to say that accelerating around a corner will not cause a Detroit locker to lock. Technically what you said is true, but for a variety of reasons in practice, it's not. Detroit lockers only apply torque to a single tire in a turn - the inside tire of any given turn. This is compounded by another issue: There is a weight transfer to the OUTSIDE tires of the vehicle during a turn. So now your inside tire, which is doing all the work, has far less traction because a big chunk of the vehicle's weight is being transferred to the tires on the other side.

The end result is that even the slightest application of throttle during a tight turn on wet/slick (or even dry paved roads that have some sand/dirt on them) will cause that inside tire to spin, which will then cause the locker to instantly re-lock, un-lock and re-lock jerking the vehicle all around as the inside tire gains and loses traction over and over. In severe enough cases, the re-locking will be violent enough cause the outside tire to break loose sending you for a ride.

Open differentials on the other hand evenly split the driving torque between both wheels. Limited slip differentials like the true-trac build on that further by applying a bias torque, allowing for un-even power splits in the event one tire looses all traction.

I got sick of a detroit locker just about instantly on the street. On turns, I'd always have to crawl out into traffic slowly to not pop and jerk around. Optionally I could give it a big boot full of gas at the very beginning of the turn and then essentially coast the rest of the way just barely feathering the gas on my Jeep. It was maddening - I just wanted to drive the thing smoothly and normally, and not have to worry around giving it just the right amount of gas to not get thrown all around.

IMO, Detroit Lockers are great for weekend-warrior trail rigs that see little street use, but are complete and utter garbage for daily driven street rigs. You have LESS traction around turns with a Detroit Locker than you do an open-diff. IMO, the best way to go is an open-diff with a cable/air/electronic locker, or some kind of helical limited slip like a true-trac.

 

I find this interesting. I read a pile of reviews trying to warn me: auto lockers will send you out of control! I have an Aussie locker (lunchbox auto locker) in my truck's rear axle. I've had 500-1000 lbs extra over the rear axle since install, maybe that's the difference, but I've had zero odd drivability problems. Yes it is a bit loud as it ratchets at low speed in a tight turn, yes the inside tire will spin if I hit the throttle hard (like pulling out in front of traffic) during a turn. But no loss of control, no jerking through corners, no 180 degree spinouts. Maybe empty and if I drove like I was 16 again, in the rain? Automatic transmission vs manual likely factors in as well. I just wanted to say that in my situation, the warnings I read never materialized and I'm glad I didn't listen.

Off road it is phenomenal. Any funny looks I might get at the grocery store are worth the performance in the high country.

Selectable lockers sound good but I spent all of $275 including rtv and gear oil on my auto locker, and it I had it installed in 3 hours taking my time. No gear setup, and far cheaper. If I had hated it, I could go back to spider gears in 2 hours.