Can you make an open rear limited slip?

[Magicfan25]

my 98 Explorer has the open rear end (ie one tire fires and peg leg burnouts)... Is there any way to make it limited slip, or some type of locker kit I can get? Also how much are these things. thanks

 

[Alec]

I have an Eaton positraction unit and love it. It was about $300 from www.differentials.com . Functions like a good L/S on the street and almost like a full locker offroad. Great unit for the money.

 

[Tarron]

Eaton costs?

I've been looking at an Eaton positraction for for my X. Was the $300 price tag with installation? If not, was it hard to install? The shop I talked to this morning wants $715 for the Eaton installed. That's $500 and $900 less than the quotes from two other shops for an ARB installed. I don't do any extreme off-roading so think the Eaton should be fine.

 

[Alec]

installation price should probably be around $300-400, so depending on the price of the unit, that sounds in the ballpark. If you need to regear, do it at the same time to save labor costs.

 

[james t]

since you already have an open carrier, and you're not gonna abuse it offroad, why not get a locker designed to fit in an open diff? you could get a Detriot EZ locker and it will drop in your open diff. the labor is very easy, gears dont need to be re-setup or anything. you could put it in, or if you had it done, labor would be much cheaper...

 

[DasFrem]

Or you can do what I'm doing, which is getting a whole new rear end from a guy on Ebay. He's selling them for around $500 for a brand new Explorer rear end with either the 3.73s or the 4.10s, both are LS. That way you get new gears, new axles, new rotors, new brake calipers and pads, and it's a very easy swap to perform in your driveway (comapared to putting in new gears or a locker). Do a search for 8.8 rear end or click on this guy's auctions : http://cgi6.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=arielperformance
He told me he'll be getting in a bunch more next week.

Orginally I was going with new 4.10 gears with a new Eaton posi which was going to run $750 or so from randy's ring and pinion, and then about $400 to have it all installed. When I found this deal out, it's much better because of all the other new stuff you get with it.

 

[William Schumacher]

the Eaton is a nice unit

I also have a posi in the rear.
make sure you get a qualified installer !
I drove an unbelievable 5 hours {one direction}to a place in upstate NY {4x4 heaven} for $100.,they were great,never had a problem with it.

if they don't line things up properly.....you will wear the gears out very quickly.

I asked about how many of these he set up,and he said 100's, that was good enough for me.

 

[JDraper]

Similar to the Detroit EZ locker is the Powertrax. Several of us on the board have them and they work well. Nice thing is you can install it yourself in the parking lot or garage. It just replaces the spider gears in the rear. Do a search here on "Powertrax" and you'll find all sorts of info.