Hey guys. As some of you may remember, my dana 70 went out with about 185k on it. Well; I bought another one, and have had it for about 10-15k miles now. It was perfect when I put it in. Made no noises, and was tight. Now when you go around turns really slow, like in a drive thru somewhere, it sounds like a roller coaster chain pulling you up a hill. Clink, clink, clink, clink. All at certain intervals, and plenty loud enough you can hear it with no problems. Its fine as long as you are going straight, so apparently its something in the limited slip unit(i still have the good one out of my old rear end). I know sometimes the clutches can chatter, but this is not what i call a chatter. Now; I havent put any LSD additive in it, and I was wondering if maybe this would cure my problem. Also, sometimes it seems to not do it as bad, and it NEVER does it as long as you are going above 5mph or so, or if you are going straight. The local napa has an additive for LSD's and it says to put the whole tube of stuff in. Should I buy some of that and try it out? I dont want to lose my limited slip, because i hate open differentials. Guess im just looking for opinions, and things here guys. Could the friction discs be worn completley out? This rear end only has about 100k on it, so i dont know. I need to pull the cover off, and change the fluid, and check it out, along with adding some additive I guess. Will I find clutch material in the oil if i change it, and the clutches are worn out? Thanks a lot for any help guys.

Eric

 

I had the notchiness only in reverse and before I put in the fluid from dodge. Id pull the cover and look for any metal on the magnet as well as any signs the spider gears are wearing. The spider gears and the LSD are the only things I can think of that are involved like that in a turn only.
Id also try adding the fluid and do some figure 8's to work it into the clutches and see if that helps.

 

Could be spider gears, though the first time I broke the dana 80, it would do it going straight or around a curve. The second time it would no longer move under its own power.

Pull cover and have a look.

 

yup, really gotta pull the cover and have a look-see to be sure. That's why I like the Detroit---it's ALWAYS noisy, so if things quiet up, I'll know it's broke

 

Huh, my detroit locker is quiet. Go figure-I wonder if they changed something in the design of them?

 

I think they did, actually. The original owner of my truck had the Detroit installed a month after purchasing the truck...so, mid 1989. I guess since then they've really refined the setup so you don't get the racheting sound nearly as loud through corners and the engagement isn't as u-joint-snapping abrupt. I'm happy with what I've got, though. The Detroit is just like the rest of my truck--subtle as a chainsaw!