i have a 99 ranger 3.0 2wd.... one of my buddies told me that there is a ranger with a posi rear end off a 91 or 92 ranger at the junkyard in good shape. How hard would it be to do this swap?

 

it depends how mechanical inclanied you are. you will have to at the verry least get a shim kit and i would sugest getting a rebuild kit too. you will have to set the backlash make sure the pinion gear is meshing corecialy with the ring gear. but it isn't too hard as long as you don't rush it.

 

A factory trac-loc isn't worth the trouble, it's better than nothing, but not by much, I would get a detroit tru-trac from summit racing, it's gear driven, no clutches to wear out and it doesn't need any modifiers and it grabs and goes, no BS, it really works and works well. It would need to be profesinally installed, but you would have a good true posi rearend that grabs and grunts day after day, The trac-loc uses clutches, the one from the boneyard may have the clutches allready worn out and need rebuilt anyway. Everyone should have a lsd even if they don't have a 4x4, I don't see why a lsd isn't standard on all 2wd's from the factory. For a truck to work or play hard, it has to have traction.

 

If you go to the boneyard and find a LII rear end, you will get a torsen carrier that has all the benefits Wendell noted. The beauty is, you won't have to deal with setting it up and as such, if you find the rear end for a fair price you might be able to keep some money in your pocket. Since owning one for a few years now, I have found the performance to be superior to the old fashioned clutch pack type carriers in all circumstances and conditions. And finally, because torsen carriers are mechanical and not of the clutch variety, the effectiveness over the life of the carrier is 100%. Clutch type carriers are slowly wearing the clutch pack with every corner you turn. Whatever you do, and unless you have a zillion miles on your ride, don't contaminate it with an old, worn out, high mile rear end.

 

I love the Torsen diff. in my Level II. I hate dog leg rear ends.

 

Slightly off track here but I was searching the old ranger posts a couple days ago and found one where Wendell was thinking about the powertrax no slip vs the true trac. I'm curious why you chose the true trac, I'm in the same
situation now. I want to upgrade my factory lsd but am not sure which way to go. My impression (from reading) is the powertrax no slip is cheaper and easier to install but takes some getting used to on the street, the true trac lsd won't wear out, easier driving on the street but not quite as good of road.
Welcome any opinions.

Cowboy, have you seen any of the level 2 rears for sale around the area?Thanks

currently have an 06 sport 4x4, 5 spd, factory lsd, 265/75/16 prospectors, 9000 # warn winch.

 

There are 2 reasons I went with the tru-tac, 1) the unit it's self is very strong and uprades the stock diff, where as the no slip uses the stock carrier. 2) the tru-trac is more forgiving on the street where I do 85% of my driving. Also the tru-trac works as good as the no slip when all the tires are planted on th ground. Then I learned a secret, you can fool the tru-trac in to acting like a full locker like the no slip with one wheel jacked up in the air. You can do these by lightly appling a little brake, this causes both wheels to pull together, even if one has zero traction, like haveing one tire lifted off the ground. So there went any advantage that the no slip would of had. Since I have a manual, I don't have enough feet to work all the pedals, so I just push down the emergency brake just a tad and "bingo", full locker, then when I get all the tires back on solid ground, I release the E-brake and wheel on. This doesn't happen much anyhow, but it's good to know that my tru-trac can and will pull out of it when it does.When all the wheels are on the ground, the tru-trac grabs ,grunts and pulls like crazy. So I got the best of both worlds, great street manners and an awesome tough locker off road. I don't like to refere to it as a limited slip, because the slip is so limited, it's not even really there. Also from what I've seen, thier not much different in price, a little but not much. I was interested in a aussie locker, it's only 239.00 bucks, it's sorta like the no slip, a lunch box locker, but they don't make for the 28 sline axle, only the 32, so I'm glad I went with the tru-trac, on the street, you barely know it's even there.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what did it cost for the true trac?
How do you think it would work in the front?

 

I paid 443.99 from www.4wheelparts.com, I have seen them cheaper maybe even at summit or rieder racing, don't remember. I had gotten a gift card from 4-wheel parts for a 100.00 from my son. so I just used it to put torwards my tru-trac. If they made one for the front of my ranger, it would be in there. A couple of my jeep buddies have them in the front of thier wranglers, it stiffens the steering a tad at times, but not to any great extent, once you get use to it, you don't even think about anymore, it's very slight. If they had lock outs like my buddy does on his 77 f-150, you can't tell it at all. Of course when your wheeling and it's engaging it will make the seering a little heavy, but not to bad at all.