Is auburn a real locker?

[odie1969]

I have been looking all over the site trying to find the info but I have yet to get anything. I know that the Auburn ECTEC(sp) is just a glorified L/S but I was on CL and found a guy selling his 7.5 with auburn locker for $100. this will be my DD and play truck till the other rig is done. I just thought I would look into this cause it is cheaper than a L/S at the JY. thanks

 

[fastpakr]

If I'm thinking of the right unit, it's a type of limited slip that has a pretty disastrous failure mode.

 

[4x4junkie]

No, they just don't lock up solid is all.
The ECTED is NOT a locker, despite the marketing claims for them, they are a manually-controlled limited slip that becomes much tighter when you push the control. They can still slip in many situations offroad though, as there are no internal locking splines, pins, etc. for providing solid engagement.

I'm not aware the ECTED was made for a 7.5 though, so I'm wondering if it's just an Auburn limited slip of some sort (such as the Sure-Grip). These are fairly reliable AFAIK, until they wear out, then they're done. That's it. The clutches cannot be rebuilt, you have to throw it out and get a new one.

 

[MikeWild]

So far my ected has locked up tighter than nun's *#*# and I've put it through some fairly strenous tests. Time will tell if it continues to do so after more wear and tear on them though, but so far I'm as happy as a pig in $#17

 

[fastpakr]

No, they just don't lock up solid is all.
The ECTED is NOT a locker, despite the marketing claims for them, they are a manually-controlled limited slip that becomes much tighter when you push the control. They can still slip in many situations offroad though, as there are no internal locking splines, pins, etc. for providing solid engagement.

I'm not aware the ECTED was made for a 7.5 though, so I'm wondering if it's just an Auburn limited slip of some sort (such as the Sure-Grip). These are fairly reliable AFAIK, until they wear out, then they're done. That's it. The clutches cannot be rebuilt, you have to throw it out and get a new one.

Thanks. The auburn limited slip was what I was remembering.

 

[AllanD]

The issue with the auburn cone-type limited slip unit
is that they are an aggressive limited slip unit that gets
more aggressive as it wears.

The thing is that if you get on it HARD in a strate line it wedges tight and tends to stay "locked"until you need to corner. they generally "unlock" when they need to but here is the real problem... when you are in a corner and apply power they tend to slip
they allow 3-5 turns of the unloaded wheel and therein is the problem as the wheel spins faster they want to lock and will... eventually but do so abrubtly and the shock loading tears them apart.

So to the uneducated they work better and better until they simply explode
seemingly without warning....

I ran one years ago in a 2.9 truck with the intention of driving it to destruction
so I could experience the phenomena first hand...

It did EXACTLY as expected.

when it did the "good" spider gear was in three pieces
I never did find all the pieces of the bad one, because they
departed the rear axle with chunks of the ring and pinion that
made a hole in the cover... fortunatly I was <1/2mile from home when it blew.

It took me 4hours to disassemble, clean the housing and reassemble
the axle with an S-spring multi-disc clutch ford Traction Loc
and another R&P

I also had to replace both axle shafts because the fragmenting
spiders buggered the splines.

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