I have a 7.5" 10-bolt with 3.42 gears and its an open diff., I saw the powertrax lock right diff in the summit catalog and figured it would be better than a mini spool, I really don't want to have to reset my gears, so I figured this would be the economical way to do it. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

 

I had one in my road race car, did not like it that much. The best posi diff for a 10 bolt is the Zexel Torsen T2R - you'd have to have a 90-92 10 bolt to run it though. They are around, if you want traction it is worth getting. If your main objective is just street driving then a Powertrax would suffice.

 

i have one, for the time being, and lets just say its "interesting" to drive it

i got it used 200$ i would personally not spend the 450$ it costs new.

 

I have a posi carrier but its 3.08 and lower, so my 3.42's wont fit. So I will have to by new "thicker" gears to run it, will the stock posi take moderate abuse or should I just bite the bullet and buy an eaton or auburn unit that will use the gears I already have, I don't want to put a lot of money into this cause I plan on puttin in a 9-inch, in the future.

 

I had a lock rite in my old 10 bolt that I just got rid of because I kept breaking pinion gears. I really liked mine, unfortunatly I sold it to my friends neighbor with the whole housing for $50 or I would have sold you mine. I never had a problem with the thing failing. The only issue that causes people some issues are the noise that you hear when the unit locks and unlocks. Sometimes it happens fairly smoothly other times it would make a loud clunk as if the unit was binding. It takes a little bit of getting used to along with the occasional tire drag I would get going around a corner when the unit would fail to unlock. I don't remember paying $450 or whatever for it though, and I don't think I would. I liked it so much I put it in my Ford 9" but the setup in the 9" is different and I don't think I like it as much. The 9" setup reuses the old side gears in the carrier and just gives you the center lockers to connect to the item.

Mike

 

MW66NOVA had one, and this is what happened.

from what I have heared, the no-slip is a much better piece than the lock rite. If you aren't beating the hell out of it, I would think the lock rite would be fine though.

Cheers!!

 

Nice! The thing seemed pretty indestructible to me. Glad to see I was wrong!

 

Yea when I saw that pic after he posted it my reaction was about the same as yours. My guess the shearing point for one of those is prob around 380-400 RWHP.

 

I don't think I'm liking those pics of that unit, I do plan on running my car hard on the street and occasionally at the strip, I think I'll just save up for an actual posi carrier, I'll just be one wheelie peelie for a while.

 

I'm up to 625hp and still holding......

 

that was broken because of wheelhop, not because i over powered the unit.

 

So if I had lets say 400 horse , give or take a little, I'd probably be O.K. using one of these.

 

I have loved the lock-rite units that I used. I used the one for an s-10 pickup and it didn't have exactly the same parts that the powertrax f-car unit had in the box. It was noisy but it was strong. I broke a driveshaft with new tires!! It looked like a piece of licorice twisted in the middle.

I think they are a pretty good bang for the buck...

 

well I think i may give one of these a shot, I'm waiting for the temp in PA to rise above 10 degrees, the garage is mighty cold, burrrrr! Thanks for all the input guys and gals!

 

If you do a lot of regular street driving with the car, you'll hate it. I'm speaking from personal experience with one. They're loud, jerky, and downright scary around corners at times. I put one in my car for the same reason as you're contemplating it, to avoid having to reset the gears. Trust me, if that's your main reason for getting one, it's not worth it. I ended up taking mine out and selling it on ebay, then paid the money for an Eaton clutch style posi. The powertrax is great for straight line traction in a car used mainly on the dragstrip, but they totally suck for a daily driver. Everyone has their opinion, that's mine, backed by my experience with running one for several years.

 

I do have a stock posi unit, the one with springs and sideplates in the center,but its a 3.08 and lower carrier, I would have to buy new gears to use it but would this work better? My buddy has one in his monte carlo with 4.10's in it, he beats on it pretty bad, it hasn't let him down yet. I hate setting rearend gears but I will if I have to

 

Just a few comments about the different traction devices here from my experience, which is a lot of racing 3rd and 4th gen f-bodies (Powertrax, Truetrac, Detriot Locker, Zexel Torsen T2R) off-roading a Jeep (Lock-Right, Powertrax) and street driving a Jeep and a 4th gen(Lock-Right, Powertrax, Zexel Torsen T2R). These units are all very particular about the type of fluid they use, so yes, you will get noise if you are using the wrong fluid. Sometimes the noise and engagement depends on the set-up of the unit. A good place like Randy's Ring and Pinion will tell ya. They sell different versions of the same units here and they do vary. The units can also be set up incorrectly and are noisy for that reason.

How all these units work is according to your right foot. Put your foot on the gas and they go into the locked position, allowing maximum traction. Want less traction? Take your foot off the gas. If you stomp on the gas you'll get a harsh engagement. So don't do that unless the car is lined up straight and you won't have a problem! I never had an issue with this road racing or on the street.

The Truetrac is an earlier version of the Zexel Torsen T2R. It DID NOT measure up in the slightest. Either this unit or the Powertrax are fine for the street, they had plenty of wheelspin on one side so they are not so harsh engaging. If they were I'd say there was a problem with the unit or operator misunderstanding of how the unit works.

 

How could anyone manage to install a Powertrax unit incorrectly??? All they do is replace the spider gears in the center of the carrier. There's no critical measurements or shimming of any kind involved. The wrong fluid??? There's no clutches in a Powertrax unit either, so plain old 90 WT. suits them just fine. Just let off the gas and they work right? Then how come you can be coasting around a corner not on the gas at all when it suddenly catches and locks, causing the whole car to jerk sideways? The Zexel-Torsen and the Powertrax units shouldn't even be classified in the same category. Torsens and Truetracs use helical cut gears to differentiate between the two axles, the Powertrax uses stiff springs and big old blocky teeth, which makes "smooth" operation a joke. The Torsens work perfectly smooth, the Powertrax is a noisy, jerky, band-aid type posi unit that has no place in a race car. About the only thing they're good for is a serious four wheel drive vehicle that spends most of its time off road. I even tried using the softer "street" springs in mine instead of the "strip" springs, still jerky, noisy, and unpredictable. If you want people to end up hitting a telephone pole or snapping an axle in half, go right ahead and keep on recommending the Powertrash unit for street cars. It'd be even more amusing to watch an autocrosser try to stay on the course with one. I put up with that piece of junk in mine for about 8 years, so I had plenty of time to learn how to drive it "properly". Didn't matter how you drove it. Powertrash=miserable street manners, period.

 

O.K. I've heard more negative than positive, so I think I'm just gonna buy new gears and use my stock GM posi unit. New gears and an install kit from summit are cheaper than a powertrax unit anyhow, then I've got money for other goodies. YAH!

 

They've apparently modified these units since I bought the one that I had. Mine didn't come with "street" type and "strip" type springs. It only had one little set of springs that pushed against the retaining pin. To be honest, the thing was occasionally noisey and it would bind sometimes going around corners. I never had concern about flying off the road or anything like that though, I just had to figure out how to drive it. Once I got used to the fact that I shouldn't be goosing the throttle around a corner the unit worked well with very little noise (you would occasionally hear a click as it unlocked and a click as it locked back up). If you did goose it going through a turn the unit would re-lock and kick the car a little bit. My new unit in my 9" is different because it reuses the old side gears and with that you hear more clicking (click-click-click) as it unlocks to turn. All in all, I thought the thing was VERY well constructed and I liked it so much I bought it for my 9". I had an old GM posi unit that I got out of the salvage yard before I installed the powertrax unit and unfortunatly when I burnt out the clutches it fragged the ring and pinion gear. The posi couldn't be rebuilt because they don't have a rebuild kit for the GM unit I had, it was simply replaced as a whole (it wasn't the zexel unit). The stock GM clutch style posi unit would have a lot of the same road manners that the Powertrax unit had but I got used to that as well. I would think that if you used your car for regular street driving and occasional strip use like I do then you would be very happy with the unit. Street racing/auto cross -- probably not. If you were obnoxious driving around town you wouldn't be happy with it.

Just so those looking know, my unit had to be installed in an open carrier and could not be used in a carrier that at one point was a posi carrier.

Also, the unit CAN be installed improperly, although you would know right away if you did install it incorrectly. Once you take all of the guts out of the carrier you slide the unit in and check to make sure that while fully engaged a metal block will fit in one direction and not in another direction. All your checking is that the unit isn't too loose but that it still has room for full disengagement. My new unit in my 9" was even easier to install (once you got the carrier apart) and although it has more clicking it operates smoother on the street. This unit reused the side gears and they gave you the inner gears to lock against those side gears. Again, you could screw that up if the side gears are worn too much which is apparently very common because I had to sort through three different 9 inch open carriers to find side gears within spec. Failure to do this would cause the side gears to not seat properly and just spin (in an unlocked position) causing you to just not go anywhere. The setup that reuses your old side gears (the cheaper of the units that powertrax sells) may be the better setup for a street car although it may have more associated noise simply because when I have the wheel turned and gun it all I hear is a clicking sound from the one side that has unlocked.

To muffle the sound all I did was simply pour in a heavier weight gear oil. That took care of a lot of the locking unlocking sound that I had to listen to before.

Hope that helps with your decision.
Mike

 

Right on, good for you dude! Believe me, if I actually thought the Powertrax unit was an upgrade, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. You're better off running your stock unit until it wears out, then spending your money on an Eaton posi at that point in time. Granted, the Eaton units are damn expensive, but they work excellent, they're tough, and they're fully rebuildable. I've also heard the Auburn Pro Series are good too, but just like the stock GM units, which are made by Auburn too, they're not rebuildable, so my vote still goes with the Eaton unit. Hey Burnt, the Powertrax unit I had was definitely not one of the newer, improved units. I bought mine back when they first came out. Mine was the Performance Locker, which was the top of the line unit at the time, with the Lock-Right being the economy version. It was also the type that goes in an open carrier. It came with new side gears, center pin, and all the parts were made of zytanium. Don't get me wrong, it was extremely durable. I removed it after running it for roughly 10 years or better, and there wasn't hardly a blemish on any of the parts. In fact, I worried more about snapping an axle in half than I did about hurting the Powertrax! I just hated how noisy and jerky it was. It didn't just catch funny when you stepped on the gas around a corner. My car is a stickshift, and I'd have the clutch pushed in just coasting around a turn, and it'd catch all of a sudden halfway through a turn, and bang so loud, you'd swear you just snapped an axle. Not to mention how embarrasing it was to be cruising on a weekend, and when you turn around sharply in a parking lot, everyone would think your car is a POS because the rearend would be clacking and jerking until you straightened out again! I also run a gear drive in the same car, which is noisy too, but in a good way!

 

I have been useing the powertrax lock rite for almost 3 years now in my daily driven, weekend raced 1988 camaro.

0 probs from locker.

The picture mw66nova posted is not norm and that is not the lock rite thats being sold now. Me and him has talked about it and swapped pics. My lock rite looks nothing like that one.. His looks more like the no slip.

The two power trax lockers are the no slip and the lock rite.. The no slip is the weaker unit, but smoother action ment for daily use.

The lock rite is stronger than your carrier. You will break the carrier before you break the lock rite locker.

I drive my car every day with the lock rite.. Even drove a couple of 6 hour one way trips in it.

At the track I run 11.40's @118 mph 1.60's 60' with Nitto 275/60-15 drag radils.

I have broke the pinion in 2 diff GM 10 10 bolt rears though, but the locker has no been damaged at all.

 

Yeah, mine wasn't the lock-right or the no-slip. They probably don't even make my style anymore. Here's a couple of pictures of the one I had that I took to sell it on ebay.

 

Since I've decided to use my stock unit and buy new gears to fit it. I might as well upgrade to a better ratio, I know that 4.10's are pretty rough behind a turbo 350 for street driving, yes fun but not very fuel economic. My buddy had 3.73's behind his 700r-4 in his S-10 so I'm also familiar with this setup. Now is anyone running 4.10's behind a 700r-4, I'll bet 1st gear is really fun but are they too much for cruising in drive or O-drive. Just wonderin'

 

Pat,

Your unit looks essentially the same as the powertrax unit that I installed in my car a few years ago. The metal composition, however, looks like it may be different. I noticed yours had two bags of springs, was that simply one bag for the larger springs and then a second bag for the smaller springs that slip inside the larger ones?

TPI355,

I'm running 4.10's behind a 700r-4. It honestly doesn't feel that much different than the 3.73 setup I had before. However, if your running anything lower than that it'll feel insane. I don't know about putting 4.10's in the stock 10 bolt housing, however, unless you seriously beef the power in it. I'm sure others more knowledgeable of the 10 bolt would have better info on that but the pinion gear is probably going to be a major weak point. I broke multiple 3.73 ratio pinions and they just are not that stout. All in all though the 4.10 ratio is fun. So far I have only driven it on the street around town with two short trips down the highway. I'm definatly not a fan of the highway driving w/ the short tire but around town the setup is a blast - especially with a rebuilt tranny, higher torque converter, and a strong shift kit.

Mike

 

well, has anyone looked at the suggested applications for these units?

The lockright is only suggested for off-road and slight street

The no-slip is reccomended for strip/street and offroad



So thats probably why they dont like the strip too much, just cant take a brutal launch...

 

[QUOTE=burntblues;3229101]Pat,

Your unit looks essentially the same as the powertrax unit that I installed in my car a few years ago. The metal composition, however, looks like it may be different. I noticed yours had two bags of springs, was that simply one bag for the larger springs and then a second bag for the smaller springs that slip inside the larger ones?

You used each set of springs independently of each other. One bag was labled "street", and the other bag was labled "street/strip". One set was just stiffer than the other set. Whatever kind of metal "zytanium" is, it was definitely stout. Like I said, I ran it for about 10 years, and there was virtually no wear on any of the parts. In fact, they sell the zytanium center pin separate as an upgrade from the stock center pins. The name reminds me of the movie "The Core", where the black guy called his new metal "unobtanium". Lol. I don't know if it's necessary with the 4.10 ratio, but I know 4.56 and higher requires a special center pin that's notched so you can get the axle retaining c-clips in. And yeah, I would imagine that small of a pinion gear would probably be a weak point in a rear that's already considered too weak in stock form.

 

going to summit tommorow for a little shoppin, i've decided on 3.73 gears for my stock posi unit, there on sale for 125.00 bucks, that and a complete install kit for 80.00, thats only 205.00 bucks altogether, for that kind of savings over the powertrax unit i'll reset my gears i wanted 3.73's anyhow, hopefully it'll hold until i can afford a 9 inch or 12 bolt conversion.

 

TPI355.. Just don't put a sticky set of tires on it and launch against a higher stall converter and you rear will be fine.

Myself I done broke two GM 7.5"/7.625" 10 bolt 3.42 rears after I got her hooking hard.

Broke the pinion gear on the 1st one and the ring gear on the second one.. Parked the car after that (Sept. of 2006) and just waiting till I have the money to put a ford 9" under her.

Now before I setup the suspension/chassis/tires to hook I drove and raced the car for over 2 years with out killing the rear end.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/my/fastcar/diffey.html

help some people to figure out what they need

 

Got my new gears today to run the stock posi Shes gonna have 3.73's now. Night rider- I'm just ordered Falken XE-512's yesterday so thats what'll be on it for tires and I've got a 2400-2800 transtar stall converter, so there won't be any brutal launches, I'm just going for a really healthy steet car with good driving manners I think this setup will be plenty good for now, I've been waitin 4 years to drive this thing I can't wait any longer. ZROLimit racing thanks for the info, after reading that I'm glad I went the route that I did.

 

That's an excellent explanation of all the various units out there. Very good article to read when you need to debunk all the various myths and tons of misinformation you hear about "posi" units. I've got a Zexel unit sitting on the shelf just waiting to go in once my stock Auburn finally wears out.