Just a little more . . . . .

[Gots_a_sol]

Looks like time for a Detroit or Eaton


I am happy with the Truetrac I stuck in my Ex after I burned up a pinion bearing and made a mess of everything else in there. Drives smooth with no popping/clicking on tight corners but works well when you start to spin up a tire. The ford clutch type lsd sucked and was expensive to rebuild so it was a no brainer to replace it.

[spencerdiesel]

BC did you have an LSD additive in there? I've read some guys say the dana 70 needs 1.5 to 2 of the little lsd additive bottles or the clutches burn up

[BC847]

BC did you have an LSD additive in there? I've read some guys say the dana 70 needs 1.5 to 2 of the little lsd additive bottles or the clutches burn up

Two of them.

That includes having it mixed with the oil I presoaked the clutches in before assembly.

[BC847]

On the plus side, the whole point of so-called Test-N-Tune is to do just that.

At this point, I've been making little tweaks to get the ET (in the 8th for now) down to the 8.05 the truck could readily duplicate at the local track.

All passes start with a 25psig boosted launch, in 4WD.




**Those last two passes to the far-right:
- The first, I shifted to neutral halfway down the track. There's a very nice improvement in 60'
- The second pass, it broke traction violently coming out of the hole, had to get off it, then back on. Still, there's a good improvement with mph.


It seems I'm dialing in the right direction anyway.

[DMan1198]

I agree with gots_a_sol on the trutrac. I have one in my 4th Gen, and it works very nicely (I have done a lot of shenanigans since I got the truck to around the 600whp mark, and it’s never one wheel peeled, or made any weird noises)

[spencerdiesel]

BC you beat up on a lot of stock ss's and gt's I bet

[BC847]

BC you beat up on a lot of stock ss's and gt's I bet

Eh, I run whatever pulls up beside me. I win some, I lose some.

Damned DANA80 axles and stuff for one is expensive. TruTrac's run $680 from Summit.

[BC847]

What are folks thoughts on a detroit locker?

[DMan1198]

They do work well, but they’re like a spool applying power in the wet, and they’re noisy by design.

[BC847]

Shit . . .

I've got a line on a 2002 DANA80 w/disc-brakes from a 2500, manual Cummins truck delivered for $1600. Dunno if it has the OEM Power-Lok. The TruTrac is available for it.

Or, I can get a 2001.5 DANA70 w/disc-brakes from a 2500, auto Cummins truck delivered for $1050. Has the Power-Lok. The TruTrac is NOT available for it.

Both have over 200K miles.

Shit.

[Mooner1]

Hey BC, don't know if this will be helpful or not, but here goes. Looking at the Dodge parts for sale on CompD and ran across a slew of Dodge/Cummins parts for sale by 99GreenCummins, who seems to be a good dude. Among them are two Dana 80's for sale for $600. One of which is a SRW 3.55 geared version. He is out of Marietta,OH. But for $300ish...road-trip?

[BC847]

Hey BC, don't know if this will be helpful or not, but here goes. . . . . . .

Thanks. It is helpful. But, I've already PMed him last week (he's in Ohio). That 80 with the 3.54 gears is a SRW, open diff, Drum-brake.

I'm wanting stock/OEM disc-brakes so I can sell the disc-brake "Kit" that's on my existing axle. I can use that money against the new axle's purchase price AND be running calipers that aren't 39 years old.

Thanks again, kind Sir.


I reckon I'm gonna run a Detroit-Locker.

[Mooner1]

10-4!

[BC847]

Just a little more . . . . . continues.

Got a 2001.5 DANA70 with stock/OEM disc-brakes. Got it stripped-down and removed the OEM 2001.5 shock-absorber mounts. Got to remove the OEM 2001.5 spring-perches next.




Now's the time to consider adding any mods . . . . if it needs it.
- The absolutely caveman basic, bolt-on ladder-bars . . . . . haven't really given me any problems the years I've had them on. They pretty-much don't allow any diagonal ditch crossing . . . . at all. Because of the factory lift-blocks, I don't see how Caltracs would properly attach. I could weld on some basic 4-link plates, and . . . . something. I see where . . longer . . . spring-perches can be had. Potentially reduces spring-wrap . . 7" long vs typical 3 ~ 4" long types.

Make a replacement for the stupid tall spacer/bump-stop. Make one with a bar coming out front with a snubber, like the old-school cheap bolt-on "Traction-Bars".

Crap!

I need to get all this potential welding done before the final straightening of the housing/tubes assembly as the heat of welding will distort the tubes. As I'm not well skilled at properly/soundly welding 1/4" and more thick, somewhat critical points, I'm gonna farm this part out. I gotta figure out where to put the X's. The assembly will also need to be narrowed by about 2.5 inches per side. Shortening the tubes thus reuse my existing '93 shafts. Tires fit in the wheel-wells. Get it all done at once, then properly straightened.

As such, it'll end-up being a '93 DANA70U (32 spline shafts), with 2001.5 dual-piston caliper disc-brakes. I got the assembly complete with the brake-rotors, calipers, parking-brake cables (it appears they'll simply plug into my stock PB cable thingy ). The rotors need to be replaced. The calipers appear leak free. Might reuse them ($65ish core value each). The parking brakes look very lightly used.
It appears the main drive-shaft universal-joint will plug right in the yolk of the newer axle. Uses the same lug-bolts.

There might be a chance that since i'm putting in a new locker something, I can up-size the shafts to 35 spline units. Maybe.

I think I can reuse the new Spicer ring & pinion I just put in the old axle. While the new carrier-bearings appear pristine, they're the ones who's races spun in the housing.

Crap.

[BC847]

Found out that Detroit offers a TruTrac for the DANA 70HD (mines a 70U).

But . . . . they're on back-order for . . . . 4 weeks or more at the moment.

I'll need to upgrade the axle shafts to 35 spline (mines 32 spline). . . ( I've learned the spline count, more or less, indicates the overall size (diameter) of the shaft as, apparently, the splines are all the same size. It takes more splines to go around the larger shafts).

That 35 spline shaft will ultimately be custom length Chromalloy units.

Crap.

- At my power level, do I really need 35 spline chromalloy axle shafts?
- And if I do, am I willing to wait 4 or more weeks for the TruTrac diff?

Or just live with a Detroit Locker, and run my original stock/OEM axle-shafts?

Crap.