Bought a Trac Loc Diff Carrier with 28 and 31 Splines - is this Normal?

[crazyramen]

I bought this "28 spline" trac loc diff carrier for my '01 edge 4WD after it chewed up a tooth on the ring gear.

Upon installation of this remanufactured diff, I found that the passenger's-side side spider gear was in fact a 31 spline! For some reason this diff has one side as a 28 and one side as a 31.

Does this come stock on any vehicle? Maybe the shop accidentally swapped around some spider gears if they had them out on the same workbench?

If this is indeed a mistake, then what's my best bet at fixing it? I've already had a shop press on the ring gear, so I'd rather replace the spider gears myself if that's an option - would 28 spline gears fit on a 31 carrier? Or would it be better for me to replace the passenger's side wheel hub with a 31 spline?

This is totally out of left field, and my attempt at figuring out if this is stock has landed me nowhere.

 

[adsm08]

Somebody screwed up. You need to put the correct side gear in, you can't slap a 31 spline axle shaft in a 28 spline housing because the 31 spline axles are bigger around and don't fit, otherwise that would be a very popular swap.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Totally agree... and no it was never from the factory like that.

If you have 28 spline axles... maybe the old diff has a serviceable side gear you could swap out the 31 spline gear.

There is always the option of taking it back to where you bought it and getting replacement too.

 

[crazyramen]

Thanks guys for confirming what I suspected.

I'd use my old spider gears, but they're very worn. A tooth came off of my ring gear as seen here and rattled around in there for long enough to do serious damage to everything - bearings, spider gears, everything.

I've already gotten the ring gear pressed on so I think I'm going to try to have the shop I bought I from send me some replacement spider gears. Should I be replacing all the spider gears at once or would it be OK for them to just send me the one I need?

 

[Dirtman]

I didn't even know a 28 spline spider gear would physically fit in a 31 spline carrier...

Definitely sounds like some ghetto work.

 

[crazyramen]

I didn't even know a 28 spline spider gear would physically fit in a 31 spline carrier...

Definitely sounds like some ghetto work.

I'll try test fitting my old spider gears to see if this was originally a 31 spline carrier or a 28 before I do anything else. Maybe I will have to send it back

 

[Dirtman]

Im sure other folks know more but unless you had a FX4 lvl 2 it should have been 28 spline. 31 spline was only in the FX4 lvl 2 and explorer axles. An edge should be 28 "I think".

31 spline was sorta the creme del a creme for rangers.

 

[crazyramen]

Im sure other folks know more but unless you had a FX4 lvl 2 it should have been 28 spline. 31 spline was only in the FX4 lvl 2 and explorer axles. An edge should be 28 "I think".

Yeah my original was a 28 spline open diff. I'm not sure what vehicle this "remanufactured" trac loc came out of - could have been a mustang or anything else with an 8.8 LS for that matter.

 

[Roert42]

Yeah my original was a 28 spline open diff. I'm not sure what vehicle this "remanufactured" trac loc came out of - could have been a mustang or anything else with an 8.8 LS for that matter.

I’m not certain, but I believe most mustangs had 28spline as well. I think the 31 spline most mostly in trucks.

 

[crazyramen]

Ok the eBay seller responded to me (on a Sunday - I'm impressed). They're gonna send me a used set of 28 spline spider gears

 

[crazyramen]

So I got the spider gears in, and they worked fine. I dunno if the carrier was originally a 28 or 31 spline diff, but I'm just glad it's working.

 

[Uncle Gump]

So I got the spider gears in, and they worked fine. I dunno if the carrier was originally a 28 or 31 spline diff, but I'm just glad it's working.

Glad you got it fixed... it's just a buyer beware world anymore. The story could have been worse... the seller could have not done a thing. But they corrected it... hopefully it didn't take 2 1/2 months to get the parts.

The spider gears are pinned to the carrier... the side gears drive the axles and are 28 or 31 spline.

 

[crazyramen]

Glad you got it fixed... it's just a buyer beware world anymore. The story could have been worse... the seller could have not done a thing. But they corrected it... hopefully it didn't take 2 1/2 months to get the parts.

The spider gears are pinned to the carrier... the side gears drive the axles and are 28 or 31 spline.

Ahhh I meant the side gears then my bad.

And no, they got them across the country in 2 days! I just spent the last 2.5 months driving her around before I got around to posting this lol

 

[gearfather]

the trac-lok came in so many things, some 28 spline and some 31 spline, ranger,aerostar,lincoln,crown vic, f150, bla bla bla, they just grabbed a side gear from the pile.

 

[crazyramen]

Yeah I'm not too beat up about the mistake, they fixed it fast enough that it was nothing more than a minor annoyance