I have to get the pictures from my boss I wasnt on RF at eth time so no right up. We had all 3 of the mechanics at my shop including a ford tech from ford that I know working on the front end. I got a new casing, carrier from the local put in yard for free because we do lots of bussiness with them, and we built from there doing mods in total about 2 weeks working a few hours at night got the auburn gear set in the truck. If I feel like doing something Ill go pull the cover, put I think i may be going to get my roll bar for when I install my body lift next weekish.

I try to get a write up goin of what we did. so maybe it will help everyone else out here

 

I don't want to stir anything up but from what I know the carriers are physically the same size.Before you start knocking me. Please keep reading. I am not totally sure on that but I am sure that the spiders are different totally different. There is a groove in the spiders allow for the circlip to lock in and retain the axle shaft. This groove is the problem with installing the D35 lockers in the SLA/IFS axles. I am gonna do a little looking on the dana website and see if I can come up with anything.

95-96 fronts are still the same other than the passenger side axle is different.
It has a CAD setup similar to one used in jeeps.

 

i believe also up to 97 1/2 explorers had the option of having manual hubs? the pinion angle was also different if i remember from what ive read, also 98-current rangers do they not have low pinion?

side note-i run an assuie and its daily driven. havent snaped a shaft yet and ive had this thing bound up pretty good. but im hearing noises currently that im thinkin my hub is going, or possibly the shaft. either way i highly reccomend an aussie!

 

Got a hold of Dave this afternoon, said fishing was great, 4 walleye over three pounds.
Bad news, he got the carrier in a trade, said that it was old when he got it and that he had to have the bearing supply outfit match the inner race to the carrier and the outer race to the housing, then went looking for a ring and pinion. The ring that was on the carrier originally, was thicker and wider than you might see now. He didn't remember the tooth count.
Got a company in Cal. to cut the gears. The pinion sets out in the case further to make contact with the ring, and is really beefy.
Dave says the cost of what he did makes this type of thing prohibitive, but that took place some 10+ years ago, and required a lot of searching and shipping and God only knows what else. He estimated the cost of getting it done so he could bolt it in to be over $650, that would be about a grand today.
But it definitely did raze some ideas, a smaller carrier with an extended pinion. It will not be as strong I'm sure, but what grade of steel can we get now, that we couldn't get then?

Ray

 

thats a LOT of writing.. im not gonna read it and go back to my original answer.. just weld it.

i doubt "posi" has changed in meaning from spool to l/s over time.

 

Not sure how I missed this thread. Clem you have been using the wrong terminology for over 50 years. Positraction aka Positrac or posi, was the name Chevrolet gave their LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL in the mid 50's. So how you came to use it for a spool is beside me. Seems someone didnt understand how a Limited slip worked and just spread the general term posi over to a spool.

If the OP does in fact have a L/S in the front then he should defidently figure out what it is and post it up.

 

im calling BS on the whole thing... he hasnt posted in quite a while and it takes maybe 5 minutes to figure out if you really do have a LS or not...

 

maybe he thinks open means only 1 tire spins, and l/s means both spin at some of the time..

 

i skipped a few pages of text, so if this has already been said, then ignore me...

front diffs do not spin backwards, the gears are made to mesh on one side of the teeth, in a stronger method than another... look at helix cut gears for instance, if they spin backwards for an extended period of time, they will break, they work in reverse, but not AS well... essentially, a front diff (which appears to be spinning backwards) is just an upside down rear diff, spun around to the front, the drive shafts (looking from the tc outwards) spin the same direction...