Well, I did it last fall to something resembling factory specs (following the factory procedure for how tight it was supposed to be) and it lasted less then 40 passes. At this point it's loose enough that I can make it slip with a 7/16" wrench on one of the driveshaft bolts and my hand on one of the tires, and I really killed the passenger side tire the last time I took it to the track.

Right now it's outside of factory specs and I'm sure the ends of the cones are touching the ends of the case. I keep hearing about cutting the ends off of them to allow you to use the thing past where the shop manual says it's time to discard. Has anyone done this? I was going to take them to a local machine shop and just ask them to mill .1" off the ends, but since it's not supposed to touch there anyway, I'm half considering just doing it with a course grit wheel in the angle grinder.

After that I plan on reassembling it shimmed pretty much as tight as I can get it reassembled correctly at. I know, it will probably act as a spool most of the time, but since I figure that I doubt that this thing will live much past this summer (the 2 times that I've taken it to the track this year it's already started making funny noises) and I care more about traction then it being docile on the street.

(If I wasn't sure that I'd break an axle I'd be whipping out the welder on this one...)

 

The only other guy on this web site that has done this (that I am aware of) is "Larry Burd"

Try to track him down.

 

Yep, already did that over the 3rd gen mailing list. He originally talked to me when he was rebuiding his since I had done mine already.

I'm more interested on people's thoughts on how precise it needs to be and how much to take off the end of the cones?

 

Sorry, man. This is beyond my experience level. Have you tried Miles over at www.9bolt.com ?

 

I'd mill the cones until they don't bottom, and then a tad more so there is room for wear. otherwise they will bottom again.

and shim the springs with a dime or a nickel That should really push the cones into the carrier. It won't interfere with the spider gears like you said yesterday. The springs ride on that disc in each side of the carrier.

Larry

 

hum... I forgot about those little pockets. I wasn't worried about them interfering, just slipping out and magling the spider gears.

didn't get to it tonight... maybe tomorrow. Definitly going with the angle grinder. don't see what I've got to loose.

 

Now here is a surprise. My 9 bolt posi lasted less then 40 passes/2months worth of dragracing.


No, that circled area is not wear, that is a spot that I haven’t cleaned the gear lube from. The axles and everything inside came out covered like that.



I believe that #2 is the area that if you see any wear GM says discard, #1 is should never see wear (might have that backwards). Either way, it looks like both areas have worn about 1/8” into each other (about 1/16" on either side).

After looking at this thing disassembled that is what I seemed to remember, that there is no really good way to machine these things down. Seems like if you cut #2 down on the cone you’d still hit on #1.

What am I missing?

 

that first pic. it's hard to make out. it that sludge buildup? if so it is from the cones bottoming out.

You can buy new cones, or take your existing cones to a machine shop and maybe they can do an inside mill job, as well as the outside mill job.

then you just need some rather thick shims, which are much easier to find than the thin ones.