...buy a Torsen. Any one know of a good one? I've found one at Reider Racing for under $400, but would like to beat that if at all possible.

The Trac-Lock has shown its ugly side....and I'm sensing a rebuild coming up pretty quickly....

Thanks in advance

 

whole rear, or just, internals?

 

Internals....

I can feel the discs starting to get sloppy....plus, it was a JY unit to start with, with 60K on it. Torsens are simply badass; really smooth power transfer.

 

They take a little getting used to. In a sharp turn with some power you will actually speed up the inside tire and it will effectively spin, but just the same speed as the outside tire. It feels a little weird at first but after a while you won't notice it anymore until you take an observant friend for a ride and he wonders what is weird about your differential.

 

Yeah, I agree Dave [Julie?] In the Level II, it was a little...interesting...at first driving in the snow and rain. I haven't really had any instances in the dry. I got really mad one day and burned the tires around the corner and slid sideways pretty good. It locks up great!

If anyone has that movie of me doing the burnout in my driveway...that was the best!

 

Well, I've heard nothing but good things about the Zexel-Torsen diffs, so a little weel chirp will be okay.

I'm doing this in prep for the SCCA Solo events....need a more reliable diff that doesn't need a rebuild every time you run it.

 

I love my torsen (torque sensing) rear :D
Summitt Racing has them for sale at $495 for 28 or 31 spline axles
click on show special order parts and it will come up



EDIT - woops sorry John - I see you already have a cheaper price....

 

Yeah, Reider's prices are seemingly hard to beat. Might just have to go with them.

 

See if they can throw in some Ranger axle's for me

 

keep checking Ebay, I won an auction brand new Powertrax Lock-Right for $225... they are normally $300+

 

Might be cheaper to buy an axle that already has one. in fact, I bet it is. You'll be $700 into it before long and you can get one at the junk yard cheaper than that.

BTW, the inventor of that just died, he was 92.

 

For about $400 you might also look in to a Powertrax No-Slip it is one of the easiest to install yourself in just a few hours and no need to reset your gears.

 

Yeah, I haven't ruled out other brands. I just want a really reliable one, and I've heard raves over the TOrsen. But if the price was right I'd go with a Powertrax, or a Detroit Locker, or anything over the stock Trac-Lok.

Dave- I'm going to get a brand new one. I went to a slavage yard for the axle itself, hence why I have a bad carrier bearing, slipping discs, etc.

 

A Torsen never actually locks up. It is a true limited slip and the inside tire can lose traction and spin somewhat faster than the outside tire on a sharp turn under power. A Torsen must have one tire spinning faster than the other in order to operate. As one of the tires begins to spin, torque is redirected to the wheel with more traction. How much torque differential the individual tires receive is determined by the gear design. IMO, a Torsen T-2 like the one in the Ranger is a good compromise between an open diff and a conventional LS. It gives good differential action on hard surfaces but, unlike an open diff, it always sends a large portion of the available torque to the tire with best traction.

 

One of these days I want to play w/ one of those Torsen 'university' display thingies. I got ankle deep in a Torsen whitepaper a while back and was nearly instantly lost..


Ohh! The new forum has centering tags!..

 

The IMechE paper is a great cure for insomnia....

 

Ever heard of the eLocker? I forget who's making it? But that sounds like a good diff, expensive, but a good diff none the less

 

Yep. Eaton makes it. It sells for roughly $650 from truckperformance.com.

If I was going to invest that much, I might as well add a couple hundered to that and get a Saleen Maxgrip differential. Those things almost behave like an electric traction control system. They aren't one, obviously, but the power transfer is smooooth.

I've been talking with Brian Mckelvy at RPS and he suggested the Powertrax no-slip. He said it would be better for the SCCA Solo 2 competitions I will be participating in, and went on further to say that the Torsen would sometimes behave like an open diff, due to the multiplying nature of it. Torsens have a torque bias ratio (TBR) of like 5:1, so if one wheel leaves the pavement completely (hard cornering) the wheel with traction will receive ZERO power, due to the inability to multiply non-existent torque from the other wheel.

Having a TBR of 5:1 means that the wheel with the best traction can receive up to five times the amount of torque that the other wheel is putting down.

However, if the other wheel leaves the ground completely, five times zero is zero, so.....there's the limitation.

I might have misplaced some info, but I believe that's accurate.

 

I like the functions of a electronic diff, they will go from a normal stock diff, to a full locker.