hey guys , I just got my 68 el camino out on the road for the first time in 11 months of restoring her, 500 horsepower and 490 torque with 410 (lincoln locked) and tci th 400 with a 3600 stall , i want to put a real posi locker in the rear , I dont like true trac and have currently have arb and detroit in my trail rig , but I know that the whole diff's are different , I'm gonna drag race her quite a bit and every so often cruise, out of powertrax, detroit , detroit soft and auburn and eaton , which is my better choice to go with and do I need to do the c clip eliminator set up ? any info appreiciated, ( and yes I was so nervous putting my foot into her , didnt know what she'd do , but loved it!), also what is a great ratcheting shifter I can use for a reverse valve body tci 400 ?

Last summer I had a new Auburn carrier installed with a 3:42 gear in my '64 street car, I like it alot very smooth and quiet. dave

NHRA requires "C" clip eliminators on any car that runs 10.99 or quicker and any car (reqardless of ET) with a spool. General rules 2.11.

eaton is your best posi, and as you know detroit is the best locker. My friend runs lockrites on his trail rig but it is very light. It is a 80 Nissan pickup with toyota diffs front and rear. Also uses 22R, and toyota running gear. another friend uses a lockright in the front 44 of his dodge pickup with a locker in his 9 1/4, and runs well.

ran a powertrax for 5th season in a row. Same unit I installed 5 years ago. works perfect every time.

I'm hearing a lot of good things about the powertrax, is there a website to learn more?
and is this a full posi or positive limited slip posi?

You ask

http://www.powertrax.com/noslip.html

I have the powertrax also, works good.

I'll post my two cents regarding the powertrax. I originally bought one to put in a 8.5" rear for a Nova I had. When I tool in my parts and handed them the Powertrax, the guy behind the counter asked if I really wanted one of those. He showed me one he'd just pulled out of another guys rearend. The teeth were worn down. It was being replaced with an Eaton posi. When I say that I immediately returned my Powertrax to Jegs and got an Eaton unit instead. And that's all I'll ever put in a rearend from now on.

That being said, obviously some guys on this board have had good exerpeinces with them. But I like the rebuildability and tuneability of an Eaton unit. Good luck with whatever choice you make! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

A friend in a 5.0 mustang had a powertrax and his wouldn't lock most of the time at the track for some reason.

I just bought a new Eaton, works perfect and it can be rebuilt.

Originally posted by thunderstruck507:
A friend in a 5.0 mustang had a powertrax and his wouldn't lock most of the time at the track for some reason.

I just bought a new Eaton, works perfect and it can be rebuilt. incorrect installation will do this or the springs dropped out when installing. Or if he had the newer quieter version, they are not as durable.

Please note that the original lock right should be used for drag racing the $199 to $219 unit not the $400+ newer quiet unit.

The lock right does not have to be rebuilt and you don't disturb the ring and pinion settings when you take it out to check for wear, replace the tension springs or to replace as part of maintenance. I can (and have) had mine out, checked and re-installed quicker than it took to clean the old gasket off the rear end cover prior to re-installation.

The limited slip is just that, limited slip. The lock right is a spool when straight ahead and that is the best for traction.

The Eaton units are excellent but it is hard to argue with the $200 price and spool function at the track. if someone has the gears they want with a one-legger and just want better traction, it is a simple 2 hour (first timer) installation cover off to cover on. No disturbing the rear settings and the time and cost to doing that.

Sure the teeth will wear, but I have 14,000+ street miles and 600+ passes on mine and no wear yet that hurts performance. (I do have a brand new unit on the shelf though) There aren't that many out there putting the abuse I put mine through either. Heavy Car, lot's of torque and highway gears aren't the best combo for longevity.

The lockright is not that bad. As I described before, my friends nissan pickup runs 36s and he beats the crap out of it and has no problems. My other friends pickup, the dodge, weights about 6000 pounds and has not had problems (and he has tore up alot of u joints on the dana 44).

Just to add, I will be looking into the Detroit Locker if anyone has any info on that. I have heard they have it for a 12-bolt car rear, but then I can't seem to find any place to buy one..Haven't looked in a few months though, any leads appreciated.

I run B&M Pro Ratchets in both my cars and love them. I do not know if it come in reverse pattern but if it does its a good one.
I have two Eaton posi 12 bolt rear ends. One is a 1967 with well over 300k on it and the clutches are still within specs. The other is a 1971 that saw many years of drag racing with slicks and it has started going peg on me. I vote Eaton.

mc71454 here you go

http://www.tractech.com/Products.htm

I'm starting to feel the eaton , I've owned a few different lockers in my trail rig and dont know much about street/strip posi's or lockers , but I can say that I've own a truetrac and hated it , now I own a detroit locker in the rear and a ARB in the front love em both and have had no problems with either , I hope that eaton will do the trick and as for the shifter , tci owes me some credit and they are sending out their version of a ratcheting shifter I hope it's what I need!

Yeah, the powertrax he had was the expensive one, I doubt he installed it incorrectly cause he knows what he's doing, but maybe he just got a bad one. I wasn't trying to badmouth the system, I was giving my opinion based on first hand experience.

It worked great on the street and stuff, but he just couldn't get it to lock the majority of the time at the track, especially during the burnout and first gear. He would boil the passenger side tire on launch...

I'm pissed off that eaton doesn't make an e-locker for dana 70s (my truck).

i vote eaton have used detroit soft hit locker and its junk for the street auburn gear is also good but over all id run eaton jmo

I use a Powertrax Lok Rite..bought mine used 3 years ago..plenty of street and some strip miles..works fine.I used it with 2.56's and now currently 3.31's

I have to say that I have the original powertrax locker in my car,the locright, not the "quieter" one which I think is called the "no slip" I wonder if that is the one that was in that guys mustang because I originally had installed the "no slip" in my car and it never did work right(I checked the installation 3 times)I pulled it out and installed the "lock right" and it is awsome, never makes much noise at all and when its locked it is really solid.
So definetly stay away from the "no slip" model if you do decide to use a powertax and get the "lock right"
Plus its costs less.

Thanks for the info Thunderstruck,

I am not surprised it was the newer quiet and much more complicated unit. This has been experienced by a few I know locally as well.

I just wanted to make sure we were talking about the same powertrax unit. Didn't mean to come off so blunt..

I just installed a Detroit Truetrac unit w/33 spline axles. Have not yet had the chance to run it as my new driveshaft is not ready (1350 spicer joints) If you saw trucks last weekend the rearend on the "Copperhead" project was a truetrac unit. It was behind a 572 and both tires were driving hard. But in the corners it is supposed to drive like an open diff. Just another option.

Ive been running a moroso brute strength posi in my chevelle for about 15 years. Its a big block street strip car that runs mid 11s. I have about 2000 passes on this diff. now. They dont recommend it for street use but I have had no problems. I have also run an eaton posi in a suburban with 35s on it. I liked it very well. I bought it through Randys ring and pinion in Washington ( Seattle area ) they also have a Yukon gear unit with carbon fiber clutches for 33 spline axles. If you hardly ever drive it on the street then I would just spool it. I have several racing buddys that drive spooled cars on the street and there biggest complaint is turning in parking lots. Spools are no fun in bad weather though so be careful. Also an option to c-clip eliminators is to take you rearend to a diff. shop and have ford style bearing ends installed. They dont leak like the c-clip eliminators sometimes do. see www.ring-pinion.com (http://www.ring-pinion.com) or call 1-877-349-1367. They are very helpful

Good Info from 70 SS Elky and NBK.

by the way, I dunno if this is still true, but I bought my eaton off ebay for LOT cheaper than they are from summit. Mine was only $300 free shipping I believe...

Originally posted by thunderstruck507:
by the way, I dunno if this is still true, but I bought my eaton off ebay for LOT cheaper than they are from summit. Mine was only $300 free shipping I believe... Yeah, I got mine on Ebay too. Only $300. It was a pretty good deal.

after carefully reviewing everyone response I've decided to go with a detroit locker , I have one in my trail rig and am used to it , I drive her everyday and know how she works , I think I'll be ok , I realize that she may clack and whatnot around corners , but when I need full posi , it'll be there instead of limited slip , and I'll still be able to drive her around town and go around corners without chirping , just have to make sure that it's locked back in when i stab it ! also another reason I came to this conclusion was that the diff shop themselves said that a lot of people were coming back in 8-9 months and saying that the clutch in their eaton was not lockin 100% of the time

I'm very pleased with both of my powertrax lockers,the one in the truck(12 bolt) is over 10 years old,not a single problem and has seen lots of abuse,the one in the 8.2 10 bolt for the Chevelle has been in for 5 years and has seen severe nitrous abuse from the smallblock,haven't sprayed the big block yet.I did have to switch from the street springs to the strip springs though.

I lied they did'nt offer detroit for my application , so I went with the eaton and when I left the shop I stuck my foot into it and she hooked up and left two posi marks , so as long as she locks up all the time , good , but the only thing bugging me was that they told me that most people have theirs rebuilt after nine months of abuse, so.....