i work at a garage, and upon boredom, i decided to read the owners manual...and it says "your car with limited slip differential..." i was like....horse$hit....so i put it on the lift, and twisted the tires...sure as hell had one!

 

What do you have a 3.1 ?

 

you work at a garage

oh, n/m

were the wheels spinning the SAME direction?

just because you read something in the owners manual doesnt exactly mean your car is equipped with the option

 

yep i have a 3.1....
actually here is the test...jack up the back 2 wheels, and spin one with your hand. if the other one spins the same way....positraction...if it spins the opposate way much slower than you are spinning, that means ya got a pegleg. if it spins the opposate way the same speed you are spinning....limited slip.
try spinning backwards and fowards

i was quite surpurised. i dont do burnouts in that car so i never really knew

 

That's cool, any special RPO codes in the glovebox that mention the posi? You should probably drop the rear cover and put in new gear lube and new posi additive to keep that posi happy!

 

hell yea...but i gots to do alot of other things first hah
i needa get a tranny service, a tune up, and new breaks....then comes that
haha

 

ummmmm........limited slip is posi

posi is limited slip

the statement about posi spinning the same way is correct

however the statement about limited slip is incorrect, because limited slip is just a new name for posi.............its works the same way as posi

 

Yep, and spinning the tires isn't a real 'acid' test, either. If the posi's a bit worn out, if you spin the tires, the other one could spin backward- and would look like an "open" (pegleg) rear.

 

Was the car in gear or out of gear? If it was out of gear, I am not surprised that both wheels turned the same direction, because it would be easier to turn the driveshaft than to activate the spider gears. If you have it in gear, or in park for an auto, you will not be able to turn the tires by hand if you have a posi unit (limited slip). If you have an open differential, then one tire will turn the opposite way of the other at the same speed as the tire you are turning.

I did not know that a limited slip was available on the V6 cars in 1992. Maybe it was. I find out new stuff every day! I swapped rears in my car to a posi disc brake rear end. Helped two things at once.

If you want to know for 100% sure, pull the rear end cover off and see if you have clutches and a big 'S' spring in your carrier.

 

for example, when i pulled out the used and worn 2.73/drum/posi out of my Z28, i took one drum off, let the other end lay on the ground and rotated the opposite side with the drum off, the posi was so worn out, it peglegged.

 

in gear. ripped up the pumpkin...sure do have one...and they both didnt spin the same direction...one spun the other direction

 

If you had it in gear and one tire spun the opposite direction of the other one, then it sounds like you do not have a limited slip. My old rear end would do exactly that and it most definitely was not a posi. Also, has the rear end ever been opened? If not it WILL have a tag attached to one of the rear end cover bolts that has stamped in it 'use limited slip differential lube only' or something to that effect.

I am not trying to make anyone mad, but like I said before, I don't think that they offered limited slip with the V6 cars in 1992. It doesn't sound to me like you have one in there.

 

oh im not mad dude...dont worry about it...
i actually think my dad put one in, but i dont talk to him much anymore...and i took off the plate, and asked me boss "whats this?" "thats the limited slip"



its all good bro, i know its all in good intentions

 

Someone put one in there, huh? That's cool. The aftermarket ones are usually stronger and better than the factory ones anyway. Make sure that you use an oil that specifically says it is for limited slip differentials. I had a buddy that didn't do that, and the clutches swelled on him and it really locked the two sides together. Then the clutches wore out really quickly, so the posi was ruined. What gears are in there? Maybe it has had 3.73's put in there too.

 

honestly, i dont know to much bout gear ratio's...how can i tell?

 

Easiest way is to count the teeth. Divide the number of ring gear teeth by the number of pinion gear teeth, and that will tell you the ratio. For example: 41 teeth on the ring gear and 12 teeth on the pinion is 3.4166 or 3.42 gear. Also, if you look on the outside edge of the ring gear, it will usually have the number of both ring gear teeth and pinion teeth stamped into it. Sometimes even the ratio is stamped there.

If you have the cover on the car, the easiest way is to jack up the rear end. Put a mark on the driveshaft with a paint pen or something, and then rotate the drive shaft until the tire makes exactly one complete revolution. If the drive shaft rotates almost exactly 3 times, you have a 3.08 gear, 3 and 1/4 turns means a 3.23, nearly 3.5 turns means a 3.42, etc... It isn't very scientific, but do it a couple of times, and you can be pretty sure what gears you have, at least really close.

 

The GM gears of my original '86 axle, my 3.73/posi/disc axle from that '84 trans am, and the '88 2.8 v6 axle under my car now, all had the gear ratios stamped, along with the tooth count.

I was so happy in that dirty dusty junkyard, laying on some funky stuff on the ground, when I counted 41:11 teeth, and saw the 3.73 marking on those ring gears! 41/11=3.727272727272727272...