During the first few months of owning my Ranger, San Diego experienced heavy rains and mud in the residential areas and snow up in the mountains.... I discovered the rear differential had an open carrier.... which does not provide for enough traction when needed.....
Looked into installing a Detroit TraTech TruTrac limited slip in the rear differential..... With previous experience using this traction device in the front differential in a Jeep... this l/s provides excellent road manners and good traction in snow, dirt and rocks.
Recently located this limited slip for $425 with an installation labor fee of $50....

Has anyone used this l/s traction device in their Ranger ????

OR 4x4

 

Not with the Tru-Trac, but I'm using an Auburn Ected which is an L/S until you lock it (electrical locker). I think limited slips are great and I was glad to be able to lock and retain the limited slip function. Prior, I had a Ford factory L/S rear and had gotten used to having it.

That sounds like a great install price. Ford rears have to be shimmed to make the pinion lash correct and that's a pain so they must be pretty good at it to only charge you $50 for the install. Mine was complicated by the fact I went to 4.56 gears at the same time; but still -- you need to get that lash right.

 

If you are not re-gearing, then the pinion shouldn't have to come out, so setting the lash would only be based on the carrier side of things, the differential might require a shim behind the bearings. It wouldn't be that bad.

The choice on limited slip is a good one, tru-trac has been very effiecent in a few friends cars.

 

Yes, that's what I meant when I said mine was "complicated" by the gear set install -- that's why the pinion needed shimming and not just the differential bearings. In fact, I have a long post detailing what's involved on the rear install, if you want to look it up. I did it after I put the ECTED in this FX4 rear.

The pain about the shimming is making sure you keep the shims CLEAN (lol -- depending on where you're working). Any dirt will distort the readings. It should be REAL HARD to get the last shims in. If it's not, then it's too loose.

I still say $50 for the install is very low and I hope whoever is doing it knows what they are doing. If they haven't done Ford rears there's a few "gotcha's".

Like for instance: the bearing caps and seats are machined as a unit IN THE REAR. This means the the bearing caps are individualized to the side of the housing they came out of. Make sure you mark them and put them back in right or you could have bearing problems afterwards.

Just be glad you don't have to torque the pinion nut to deform the crush sleeve (350 lb/ft) without a working impact wrench in that range -- took 3 guys: one at the end of a 3/4" drive breaker bar with a 6 foot pipe on it, and two guys to hold down the rear, lol. Next time I'm torquing it when the rear is back on the truck. I built the new one and they swapped it out with the old one, so it was built off the truck. What a pain.

 

Made arrangements to have the TT installed this coming Tuesday...
The tech informed me that the majority of the 8.8s he has done required new carrier bearings due to abnormal wear... I have a set on order... JUST IN CASE !!!
Very cool.... The price went down to $404 for the TT.

OR 4x4

 

The removal and installation of the TT carrier was straight forward and uneventful. The hardest part was removing the carrier bearings....
Both the mechanic and I were surprised the carrier bearings were in like new condition.... Guess using Redline synthetic gear lube paid off !!!!
R&R time was about 2.75 hrs which included stopping for beverages, cooking food on the BBQ and chatting with the mechanics wife and son.
There is a noticable difference in traction with very good road manners....
Found out that the price of the TT went down $10 from the original quote and since the mechanic had rescheduled the appointment from Tuesday to Wednesday due to a family situation.... He said the installation labor was FREE.....
Total price was $394 plus tax.

OR 4x4

 

Sounds like it worked out! Very good. I use Amsoil synthetic gear lube (uses the same basic PAO oil as Redline) in my rear as well. Synthetics are where it's at, for my money.

 

What was your axle code that your ORP didn't have a factoy limited slip?

 

The axle code on the sticker attached to the drivers rear door says: 97.
The codes on the metal tag under the differential cover bolt say: S330A 410 88 9M15.
The (9) identifies an OPEN carrier and the (7) is 4.10 gears.
IF the code were an R7..... the (R) would identify a l/s with 4.10 gears.
IF there were an L near the 410 and 88 on the metal tag; the differential would have a TracLoc l/s inside.

Check the URL below which may help you identify what your codes mean.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Axles.html

OR 4x4

 

So if i have an R7 code, does that mean that if i were to smoke the tires, i would one wheel peel, or would both spin?

 

Depends. A limited slip is NO guarantee of two wheels peeling. Also, an open is no guarantee of only ONE wheel peeling.

The way an open differential works, if both wheels can burn rubber equally, they both will. Even if not equal, both can be burning rubber AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS.

Similarly, if you have a limited slip, it is possible for the traction side to side to be different enough that there is not enough torque to one of the wheels and only one wheel will burn out.

It really depends on conditions -- BUT: with a limited slip you will have more traction down, more often, in more circumstances.

 

Well thats all im worried about, more traction!

 

lol! What do you WANT? That determines what you should have. If you're trying to be dramatic with burnouts with limited power, then an open is better. If you're trying to get maximum traction for better ET's then an LS is better.

An open may be better for high speed handling under throttle as well.

 

i was just using the burnout as an example to figure out which tires were spinnin. ive actually only broken the tires loose once or twice and i swore i left two black marks. when im backin up i know both spin because of the two marks in the garage..:) i just dont want to get stuck....

 

well? hows it work? i wanna get one for my front diff...

 

The TT works exactly how it did when I had one in my Jeep.
Great traction in the dirt and good manners on the asphault.

OR 4x4

 

you got on sweet deal on that. but i am convinced after reading that chart from the rangerstation that ford had to of screwed up when the made my axel tag because its different that what the door says

the axel tag reads
V330L
10 88 3L12

the sticker on the door reads 97
i know the 97 means open 8.8 4.10

 

Looks like the tag agrees with the door sticker.....
The missing L means that the differential has an open carrier just like the 97 identifies....
Ford may have forgotten a digit when they stamped it on the metal tag ??
I believe the tag should actually read 4 10 88; instead of 10 88.

OR 4x4

 

I agree with OffRoad 4x4.
I am pretty sure that that 10 on your code is the last part of 4 10 if the tag is rusted or muddy the 4 could be obscured, or Ford could have miss stamped it. If you were thinking 3L12 is 3.12 gears with L/S that code dose not apply to these purposes, so 3L12 is just 3L12 ( odd consequence though).
-Josh

 

The 3L12 code is the Plant ID number....

OR 4x4

 

The TT was installed about 6 weeks ago and the difference in traction is quite noticable....

During recent rains here in San Diego... while starting out from a stop sign the tires started spinning..... In the past there was one tire spinning which did not do much for moving the truck forward..., but now with two tires spinning the truck continued to move forward until the 265x75 BFG AT KOs grabbed traction.
The transfer of torque from one wheel to the other by the torque sensing mechanism works very well....

I am sure some of you would be interested in this test....

Recently in an empty parking lot.... I decided to test dry traction.... and also see what the performance modifications have accomplished.
I was pleasantly surprised that snapping the throttle and side stepping the clutch... the truck would LIGHT UP the tires. Hadn't done that in years; since I owned my '69 Mercury Cougar XR7.
Prior to the modifications.... the tires would barely chirp.....

Now that winter is here.... Once we get some snow up in the mountains.... I will test the traction in 2WD and 4WD. Last year the traction in the snow with the open carrier traction was quite poor to say the least.

OR 4x4

 

Does anyone know how to find out if you have a 28 or 31 spline axles. I know I have the 8.8.

 

Your model Ranger is a 4x4, but I don't see any indications that it is an FX4 model... The 8.8 that comes in the FX4 level 2 and the Explorer will have 31 spline axles; otherwise yours will have 28 spline axles....

OR 4x4

 

thanks, yeah it is the xlt 2006. so 28 it is.