- Joined
- February 13, 1999
- Messages
- 7,100
- Reaction score
- 36
- Location
- Tampa, FL
- City, State
- Chief GPS'um and Still Lost Native Texan
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '99 EB 4x4 "Herc" RIP
Bob that's an excellent post. Dang, finally someone who is more wordy than I am 
Jason, I believe all of your answers are now in this thread. I feel a need to reply again since I am one who has praised the locker and I know some here have bought one based on members like me recommending it, so I feel a little responsible.
The only thing I don't like about the NoSlip is the extra backlash. I can put my Explorer in park and roll it back and forth a few inches whereas the stock TracLoc only had maybe an inch at most.
I have a lifted SUV with no swaybars, so I drive it like a grandpa. It really is very transparent to me, but I don't gun the gas hard on straightaways or power hard through corners either. I take corners like Bob described and mine doesn't lock up. If you drive agressively, I suppose the extra backlash could clunk the unit during shifts, but not like you describe. As already suggested, possibly your u-joints are going out, and the extra backlash is exacerbating the problem. You did mention "But #2 worries me still. But come to think of it, it used to do that before the locker but not nearly as bad. Could the locker have amplified a preexisting condition?" Yep.
#4 won't happen unless you stay under power, don't let off to release the locker, and keep turning until something has to give. If your tires are stuck to the surface, the locker will have to release, or you will break your axle. Make sense? Moab redrock is like driving on sandpaper: extreme traction. I have hit the gas hard in a tight turn there before, as if trying to do a "doughnut", and the Moab surface prevented the tires from skidding until finally the locker released with the loud bang you describe.
If traction gives, then you'll get your #3 wheel hop or tire rubber scratch. If traction is good and doesn't give, then something has to give: you're locked and your tires are moving at different speeds, remember? If you don't hear that pop, traction holds, and keep on it, then something else will have to give to release the difference in the tire travel: your axle.
You have a locker, and a good one. But it is still a locker. You can't drive it like the open diffy in your mom's Buick.
#1 and #2 is not the Powertrax's fault. You have another problem, and as suggested, I'd try the u-joints first before looking elsewhere.
Jason, I believe all of your answers are now in this thread. I feel a need to reply again since I am one who has praised the locker and I know some here have bought one based on members like me recommending it, so I feel a little responsible.
The only thing I don't like about the NoSlip is the extra backlash. I can put my Explorer in park and roll it back and forth a few inches whereas the stock TracLoc only had maybe an inch at most.
I have a lifted SUV with no swaybars, so I drive it like a grandpa. It really is very transparent to me, but I don't gun the gas hard on straightaways or power hard through corners either. I take corners like Bob described and mine doesn't lock up. If you drive agressively, I suppose the extra backlash could clunk the unit during shifts, but not like you describe. As already suggested, possibly your u-joints are going out, and the extra backlash is exacerbating the problem. You did mention "But #2 worries me still. But come to think of it, it used to do that before the locker but not nearly as bad. Could the locker have amplified a preexisting condition?" Yep.
#4 won't happen unless you stay under power, don't let off to release the locker, and keep turning until something has to give. If your tires are stuck to the surface, the locker will have to release, or you will break your axle. Make sense? Moab redrock is like driving on sandpaper: extreme traction. I have hit the gas hard in a tight turn there before, as if trying to do a "doughnut", and the Moab surface prevented the tires from skidding until finally the locker released with the loud bang you describe.
If traction gives, then you'll get your #3 wheel hop or tire rubber scratch. If traction is good and doesn't give, then something has to give: you're locked and your tires are moving at different speeds, remember? If you don't hear that pop, traction holds, and keep on it, then something else will have to give to release the difference in the tire travel: your axle.
You have a locker, and a good one. But it is still a locker. You can't drive it like the open diffy in your mom's Buick.
#1 and #2 is not the Powertrax's fault. You have another problem, and as suggested, I'd try the u-joints first before looking elsewhere.
