I could sware I saw someting about buying a rear from a v-6 car which was posi and SLP selling 3:73 chunks from the LS1's. anybody got a link or any info on that? It seems like it may be the cheapest way for me to add a 3:73 posi.

I need a direct bold in with drums...i guess

 

That's not quite right.

SLP doesn't sell "3.73 chunks from LS1s". What they do sell is a 3-series carrier, that they took out of them to put a heavier-duty one in. It does not come with gears.

The idea is, you buy a 6-cyl rear end that already has the 3.73 gears, and you add the posi carrier from SLP. Carriers don't have a gear ratio. If you do this, you dodge the gear setup hassle and expense. Of course you're also stuck with drum brakes.

 

And thats absolutely all it takes?

Take a good rear end.
Buy and swap the carrier.
Youre done?

Sounds easy enough.

Any other cheapie option?

 

How cheap could it possibly get?

A junk 6-cyl rear from a 90-up, and a take-off OEM part for $100, and 2 quarts of fluid. Additionally, 2 carrier bearings would be wise.

I fail to see how you can come up with a 3.73 posi rear for one of these cars from scratch for any less than that. It would probably cost twice as much to take some existing rear and put the gears in it.

 

Thats what Im thinking.

Anybody got the part # for it at SLP?

 

Are you sure? I would think if the carrier is changed, backlash and preload still have to be reset, the same as if the gears were swapped.

 

If you don't touch the pinion, then you don't have to mess with its preload.

Carriers are within a couple of thousandths of each other. The thing that is different from one rear to another, is the housing. 99% of the time you can change carriers and just put the same shims back where they came from and it will be perfect. Every single one I've ever swapped that way (not all that many, maybe 15 or 20 of all types) needed no shim change. Always check though, just in case you get the one different carrier in the world.

 

I guess it makes sense when you look at it that way. When I put the SLP torsen take-off carrier in mine, I used the original shims as a baseline, and found it to be wayyy off. Of course, I also swapped out the 2.73's for 3.23's at the same time, so that probably had something to do with it.

To the guy swapping in the SLP posi:

Go for it. It's absolutely amazing the way that torsen hooks up. The only time I've ever had one wheel spin with that posi, was when trying to start out, pointing up hill, with loose gravel under one of the drivewheels. Other than that, it's been great. On any kind of pavements, I just mash the gas, and bang, there's a pair of eat marks right behind me.


The only downside to it is the weird vibration under certain turns. Turning sharply, at low, low speed, under throttle, make the rear end vibrate. For example, taking off from a stop sign, and immediately making a 90-degree right turn. That will do it, most of the time. I find it to be not that annoying, as any decent radio volume will drown out the noise.