2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission 99 with factory locker?????

[Bunyan]

Before my 01 I had a 99 2500. I had it for 33000 miles before the dealer did forget adding coolant. The 01 definetly has limited slip. My 99 was very bad at tire wear. I could drive anywhere and both rear wheels would spin even if one wheel was off the ground. Some that I've talked with say that limited slips can be adjusted a bit for more bite. I've never heard of this. What do you guys think?

 

[Rattler]

It was probably just a tight set-up from the factory. Randy

 

[MVieira]

If you have a Dana/Spicer Powr-lok, they will sometimes come from the factory with clutch disc & plate orientation that will stack 2 discs and 2 plates together so you will have less acting surface area which makes the unit less aggressive. Mostly they are set up that way for front axle applications so you don't fight the steering in 4wd and in tight turns. I have found sometimes they set some factory rear units that way. I looked in my service manual and it shows that the set up is plate/disc all the way across on the rear Dana-70 Powr-lok, so it should already be the most aggressive orientation, but you might want to pull it out and check the orientation, if you're not happy with the performance. If you're in there, then I would go ahead and put new clutch packs in it. They pretty much start losing there effectiveness at about 65,000 to 70,000 miles. Also we used to tighten up Dana 44 Powr-Loks in Jeeps to make them really aggressive, both side gears rest in cups and we would take diff. set up shims and place a proper fitting shim between each cup and side gear, usually a . 010", and that would put more pressure on the clutches. If you have a Trac-Lok, in my opinion they aren't very good and other than new clutch packs there isn't much you can do, they don't bias much torque to the wheel with traction. If you don't know; the Powr-Lok has a split carrier case that has bolts holding it together and a 4-pinion 2-side gear design. The Trac-Lok is a one piece carrier with 2-pinions & 2-side gears. I know on my truck the rear Dana-70 has a Powr-Lok and it is very aggressive. If you jack up one wheel in neutral you have to use a lot of effort to get the wheel to spin. I think the book says no lower than 30 ft. lbs. to rotate the jacked up wheel with a beam or dial torque wrench attached to the wheel studs and pulling at the center of the axle. You could also just put in a Detroit Locker, ARB Air Locker, or one of the new electric lockers if you felt like spending some hard earned cash. Sorry for being long winded, I used to really get into diffs.

Regards, Mike.