<HR style="COLOR: #666666" SIZE=1>Hey, i am a proud owner of a 78 ford f-150 XLT ranger with a big old 351 cleveland and my rearend blew. my axle gears went. i was wondering since it is a limited slip rearend, can i change it to a Traction Lock. like i took the clutches and the axle gear with no flange on the back out, and i put the other axle gear in the hole which the clutches gear went into and it fit but it had a little bit of play inside there. Shouldn't the axle hold it inplace? or just scrap the whole idea cause its no possible and just leave it as a limited slip?

 

A limited slip and trac loc are one in the same. They are both traction devices for both rear wheels.

 

then whats the point of the clutches? i find that all they do is prevent your one tire from roateing faster then the other... now dose that really help when your starting off the line at the track?

 

That is not how a trac loc works. A trac loc or limited slip will lock both wheel together and keep them driving or turning at the same rate in a straight line but when you turn a corner the clutches will slip allowing one wheel to rotate faster than the other. So yes it helps a great amount in a straight line. You end up with twice the traction, instead of one wheel.

Now a spool will lock both wheels in as a solid unit and will never allow one wheel to spin faster than the other which is not good for street driving only straight line.

When force is applied to the axles it will cause the trac loc to grip the clutches tighter causing both wheels to drive or hold tighter. The same holds true if you are in a turn and stab the gas. This same manor is what trac locs are not the best choice for winter type driving all though they may help prevent one from getting stuck they do no handle that well at speeds in bad conditions.

A new set of clutches will have a break away torque of around 275 ft lbs. This is the point at which the clutches will slip.

I have seen the side covers on the trac locs split apart from heavy trucks launcing on pavement and heavy drag cars with big tires. This cover failure is due to the side load produced from the clutches being load.

This may make more sense to you if i could show you in person how each part workes when it is put together.

If you do not want the factory trac loc I will gladly trade you an open carrier for it.

 

k whats an open carrier? and how dose that work?

 

An open carrier does not lock the two wheels together and is the most common axle set up in every car and truck on the road. It's built almos t the same as a trac loc but with out the clutches and some other small pieces that make a trac loc a trac loc.

The open carrier still has 4 spider gears and the axle slides into the two side spiders but with out the clutches each axle can do it's own thing meaning each axle can spin in a different direction freely. An open carrier will only provide traction to one wheel and it ends up being the wheel with less traction.

With an open carrier you can leave the truck in gear and jack one wheel off of the ground and still rotate it but a trac loc will not allow this to happen because the axles are locked by the clutches.

Not sure if i am describing it the best way to you or not. If I have time I will try to dig up pics of the two carriers and see if they will help.

 

ok i see what your getting at but i still done understand about how the one tire only rotates because of the gears on both axle and wiht out the clutches? i would think both tires would rotate like a locker...

 

If you saw how the spider gears are built you would see how one axle can rotate and not the other hence the meaning open carrier.

This may help. There are 4 spider gears and when one axle rotates it only turns three of the spider gears. The fourth one which is located on or around the other axle shaft sits still while the others rotate around it. The fourth one is kind of like a rotation point.

 

is the 4th gear larger then the other 3?

 

No the fourth one is the same as the others. I only describe it as a fourth one because there are 4 spider gears. In an open carrier the two outer ones for the axles are the same and the other two are slightly different but still the same over all size.

 

k yeah i know what your getting at, we have that type of rear end in out 92 f-150 ext long box 2wd, my dad showed me how it works with my rearend since its appart