So you want a limited slip / locker in your Ranger in 2026?

[RangerXLT]

So we'll start out with some ground rules.

• I'm aware of the Explorer swap, it is well documented and a viable option, i did not want to weld nor did I really think i needed disc.
• I'm also aware of the later rear axle swaps same thoughts with added complication of 2 ABS sensors vs 1. They are also expensive.
• I'm like wise aware of the rare FX4/Off Road axles with Torsens and 31 spline axles. These in decent shape extreme rare and also expensive.
• I just wanted to eliminate one wheel peel.
• This is my advice and experience, you may follow it or not as you wish. It is not intended to be a comprehensive "How To"

I spent a lot of time in the technical articles here on TRS, I would advise the same.

First of all if your truck has an 8.8, in good shape and you aren't looking to change the gear ratio, simply find a quality 28 spline LS/Locker carrier and put it in. By quality I mean Ford, Eaton, perhaps Auburn. Particularly for Ford ones Ebay is covered up with them, you can get the clutch packs easily from FRPP and you're in business. If you use Ford carrier bearings, use quality parts and no one has previously monkeyed with it, it is highly unlikely that you will need to do anything but put back the factory shims.

1. Note: if you are reusing gears disregard everything you see on the tube of you and read about gear patterns, your goal is not to get the perfect gear pattern, a pretty good one or even an acceptable one, it is to get exactly the same pattern it had to start with.
   1. With this in mind if you are only replacing the carrier you will need to buy, beg, or borrow a magnetic dial indicator and some gear marking compound.
   2. If you're replacing pinion bearings, you'll need a way to measure the pinion depth, a beam style inlb torque wrench and a set of dial calipers. Again it's unlikely you will have to change any of this but it needs to be checked. If you're going that far, I recommend a crush sleeve eliminator.
2. Pro Tips:
   1. If you get the FRPP bearing kit with axle bearings it's usually only 10-15 dollars more.
   2. If you put the carrier in the freezer and the carrier bearings in the oven and are patient, you can do it without a press. The old axle bearing race makes a perfect carrier bearing driver after you remove the cage and rollers. The same is true for the pinion bearing if you are going that far. The piñon bearing race makes a fine driver for the new pinion seal.

Now if your truck has a 7.5 you know that LS for them are not exactly growing on trees, so your best option there is probably to find an 8.8 and go from there, if that is the case or your present 8.8 is damaged read on.

1. Know that if you're buying from a yard, hollander does not differentiate between LS or not, so you must either see the door tag or the axle tag and verify. Rangers with LS are somewhat rare in and of themselves in my experience.
2. Also note on a vehicle this old an "A grade" mechanical part basically only refers to mileage per year, a 2002 for instance can have around 170,000 miles and still be "A grade" it can also be super rusty and still be "A grade" it took me 3 rear ends from a supplier to get one that the housing was anything approaching nice.
3. My advice is to find the nicest housing you can and get that, all the internals can be replaced. If i had know what junk i was going to get from the yards I would have just pulled the one at Pul A Part that had 210,000.
4. It is highly unlikely at this point that you are going to find a Traction-Lok axle assembly that you can just put in, resign yourself to it now and be happier, if you do get one it is a bonus and buy a lottery ticket.

So here's what i ended up with, I bought a decent housing 4.10 ratio open with 160,000 miles on it. I did find a 4.10 LS (R7) but it was very rusty, to the point that the rear cover which had already been replaced once was about to rust trough again, it had wheel spacers on it and the axles and bearings were shot, the clutches were worn out. The second one was only slightly better. the third one was a nice housing and fairly clean, though they had decided to paint it poorly so I ended up stripping it and painting it. I esuntually got a good housing and a good set of gears. The axles weren't any good and one of my original 7.5 axles wasn't any good without an axle saver (the axles shafts themselves are interchangeable) so I had a choice, i could get a 31 spline Traction-Lok (or any other carrier) and have a set of custom axles made by someone like Moser with 31 splines but 28 spline axle bearing races or i could get "stock axles" and a 28 spline carrier. I was able to find a new but discontinued 28 spline Detroit Truetrac and a set of factory Ford axles for about what the custom axles and a FRPP Traction-Lok would cost. (there were multiple choices for these including Auburns, Detroit Lockers and Detroit Truetracs.)

I put this all together with new bearings from FRPP, new lines from Inline tube and a new hose from Motorcraft. As I mentioned above I checked it all when I took it apart, I put it all back together with the new bearings, the Detroit Truetrac and the factory shims, unsurprisingly everything was exactly the same except for backlash which was ,001 tighter. Perfect.

Note; there is conflicting information on the web, but since I did change the ratio I needed a programmer. You can check ahead of time to see if you have the option in the GEM, if not it's likely in the PCM and will need a calibrator or programmer. I think this happened in 2001 - 2002.

 

[Lefty]

I once had the "one wheel peel." I'm very happy with a brand new Torsen LS on my older gen 8.8 four ten.

 

[RangerXLT]

Torsen still list the T2R in both 28 and 31 splines, that is also a fine choice. Anyone who is an OEM would be. Just pick the TYPE of LS according to your wants and needs.

 

[Lefty]

Torsen still list the T2R in both 28 and 31 splines, that is also a fine choice. Anyone who is an OEM would be. Just pick the TYPE of LS according to your wants and needs.

 

[Lefty]

I've had limited slip before. I spent a long time looking for one at Upull junkyards only to find a few that looked highly questionable so I went with new.

Some guys here will swear by lockers. Good for them. They are most certainly easy to install. A friend of mine offered to do the work, but they are not quite as "transparent".

The Torsen LS seemed to be the best choice. A shop put mine in for about two thousand three hundred bucks. It was well worth it, even on my twenty three year old Ranger.

It's easy to get caught "on the fence" when it comes to the possibilities. Anything is an improvement. I am very grateful to the senior members here who recommended this.

 

[RangerXLT]

I didn't take as many photos as i thought, but here's a few.

 

[sgtsandman]

I've had limited slip before. I spent a long time looking for one at Upull junkyards only to find a few that looked highly questionable so I went with new.

Some guys here will swear by lockers. Good for them. They are most certainly easy to install. A friend of mine offered to do the work, but they are not quite as "transparent".

The Torsen LS seemed to be the best choice. A shop put mine in for about two thousand three hundred bucks. It was well worth it, even on my twenty three year old Ranger.

It's easy to get caught "on the fence" when it comes to the possibilities. Anything is an improvement. I am very grateful to the senior members here who recommended this.

It depends on where and how you use your vehicle as to which is better.

A locker, while it can be used on road, is better for off road applications that on road. If you aren't cateful and/or you don't what what you are doing, it can be a detriment rather than a help in slippery conditions on road. It can keep shoving you in the direction you have already been going while trying to make a turn or it can spin you around.

A limited slip tends to have better road manners because the axle shafts aren't hard locked together.

As far as ease install, it depends on the type of locker, or limited slip for that matter. The ones that replaces the spider gears in the carrier is generally pretty easy in a Ford axle. The units that replace the entire carrier is a different story. Depending on the tolerances, it could be a straight swap, but Murphy's Law doesn't often allow that to happen. Moving and replacing shims to get proper ring and pinion tooth engagement with multiple removal and reinstallation of the locker or limited slip is more likely going to be needed than not.

 

[Lefty]

It depends on where and how you use your vehicle as to which is better.

A locker, while it can be used on road, is better for off road applications that on road. If you aren't cateful and/or you don't what what you are doing, it can be a detriment rather than a help in slippery conditions on road. It can keep shoving you in the direction you have already been going while trying to make a turn or it can spin you around.

A limited slip tends to have better road manners because the axle shafts aren't hard locked together.

As far as ease install, it depends on the type of locker, or limited slip for that matter. The ones that replaces the spider gears in the carrier is generally pretty easy in a Ford axle. The units that replace the entire carrier is a different story. Depending on the tolerances, it could be a straight swap, but Murphy's Law doesn't often allow that to happen. Moving and replacing shims to get proper ring and pinion tooth engagement with multiple removal and reinstallation of the locker or limited slip is more likely going to be needed than not.

Well said. If I recall, you recommended the Torsion LS for my purposes which is mostly on the street. I'm glad I followed your advice. Thank you once again.

 

[sgtsandman]

Well said. If I recall, you recommended the Torsion LS for my purposes which is mostly on the street. I'm glad I followed your advice. Thank you once again.

Yes sir. If I didn't off road, all I would want is a limited slip.

 

[broncc]

IF YOU HAVE A DIAL INDICATOR AND HYDRAULIC PRESS:
I'd like to add that LMR has probably the best deal on new Ford LSD carriers. They even come with the carbon clutch upgrade for more durability when you're in the mud hole. I like how the diff feels with no friction modifier as a reference.

NO TOOLS/ONLY CAR:
Check car-part for a letter code axle and bolt it in. Drop clutches from LMR in while changing the fluid and call it a day.


I hesitate to buy car parts on Ebay because there is too much risk trusting some random guy to have the correct part. It's a different story with NOS and rare stuff, but when you can still get factory new parts why bother?

I have strong opinions about drop-in lockers that you can read here.

 

[RangerXLT]

I was going to let it go, but since you just keep on keeping on.

I haven't done that many Fords but back in the day there was a recall on Auburns in GM, I probably did 100 or more, I had to change the shims exactly zero times. I had exactly zero comebacks on them for issues of any sort and I checked it all every time, the same is true of the Fords.

I repeat from the standpoint of someone who has actually done this stuff, if you use quality stuff, take the gear pattern and measurements before and after as I outlined and are only changing the carrier it's highly unlikely you'll have to change the shims.

I spent the time to write this and put my experience here for the sorts of people (like the at least three who have asked this very question in the last six months) who are looking to do this. Replacing the whole axle at this stage is terrible advice because you stand about the same chance of finding a decent factory Ranger limited slip 8.8 that will bolt in with no repairs as you do finding gold (or oil that you did not put there) in your back yard.

$2300.00 is frankly nuts to put a carrier in, even if they supplied the Torsen at full retail. I would bet that the number of people that advice is actually helpful to here is very small. If there's a line around the corner to pay this, I'll do it for 2200.00. On the most generous side All data time to overhaul a Ford 8.8 and replace everything is like 7 hours. If my contribution was my prowess with my check book and ability to follow the crowd, I'd have saved everyone the trouble.

I posted a very comprehensive video on the types of differentials. Anyone with reasonable english skills and a desire to understand the concept could very easily not be "on the fence" here.

And finally on the "senior member" nonsense. I'll tell you what I've learned in years and years on forums way back to when they were run from list servers and groups, There are without a doubt some very fine and very experienced "senior members", there's an equal number who couldn't pour urine out of a boot with directions on the sole, have never done it and are simply repeating forum mantra. Judge people on the quality of their contribution and not their post count and forum "status".

 

[RangerXLT]

IF YOU HAVE A DIAL INDICATOR AND HYDRAULIC PRESS:
I'd like to add that LMR has probably the best deal on new Ford LSD carriers. They even come with the carbon clutch upgrade for more durability when you're in the mud hole. I like how the diff feels with no friction modifier as a reference.

Agreed, do note that the 28 spline FRPP carrier is discontinued. The 31 spline is cheap though. Most good gear oil now has LS additive in it. In fact is hard to find it without if you need it for a helical gear LSD.

You probably don't need the press if you're just changing a carrier. (You can warm the bearings and freeze the carrier)

You can buy a dial indicator and base for like 60 bucks if you don't have one.

NO TOOLS/ONLY CAR:
Check car-part for a letter code axle and bolt it in. Drop clutches from LMR in while changing the fluid and call it a day.

Good luck.

I hesitate to buy car parts on Ebay because there is too much risk trusting some random guy to have the correct part. It's a different story with NOS and rare stuff, but when you can still get factory new parts why bother?

Gotta be careful for sure, look at seller reputation, many businesses and salvage yards sell there, you can buy Ford Carriers for a couple hundred bucks and even if you buy new carbon clutches you'll likely be out for under 400 bucks, a lot of them come with good bearings if your so inclined / don't have tools.