Detroit Truetrac

[kurek]

Oil varnish on the ring teeth?

Yeah this thing came out of a pretty skunky donor but the price was right and for a daily driver + road tripper I think 3.45 is going to be a better ratio than finding 3.73 or 4.10's out of a Ranger (the other, much more common donor for 7.5" LSD's and gears)

Some time this weekend I'll be pulling the clutches out of there to inspect & (maybe) replace them and while they're out I'll let the hard parts soak in solvent.

In particular for a sporty-ish car I'd have loved to do a truetrac in her car (and mine... truetrac everything! ) but this trac-lock and gears together were cheaper than the new seal/sleeve kit I had to buy to install them. Would have been another ~$800+ to buy a new truetrac and a new set of gears.

 

[indept]

Well ****, that's not what I wanted to hear lol. Appreciate the insight. Guess my Circle D torque converter just got bumped down to a street edge lol. I was going to buy mostly new parts and engine accessories so that I could build the longblock up one weekend d and drop it in the next, I may have to rethink that strategy. I see new oil pans are unavailable too.

Do the circle D converter when you do the engine swap and leave the lsd for now. You were expecting 500 in labor for the diff so you're short by 584 bucks so put as much away in your piggy bank as you can in case the diff does fail. If you did the diff instead of the converter and regretted not doing the converter or needed to later, replacing the converter after everything is together will be a royal PIA.

 

[HEMIMANN]

@kurek - yeah, the teeth surface doesn't look too bad macroscopically - no big brinnelling areas or anything.

 

[Jwithing]

Do the circle D converter when you do the engine swap and leave the lsd for now. You were expecting 500 in labor for the diff so you're short by 584 bucks so put as much away in your piggy bank as you can in case the diff does fail. If you did the diff instead of the converter and regretted not doing the converter or needed to later, replacing the converter after everything is together will be a royal PIA.

Agreed, kind of started to come to that thought pattern as well.

 

[reek]

Truth. Same here. I still like my AAm Trac-Rite torsen gear axle, cause I go back into the woods a fair amount, and tow heavy sometimes. If I weren't doing that, LSD is plenty good.

I remember aligning a prototype gun gear drive in the military. What a royal PITA. All the way to wax printing the mesh several times to ensure optimal mesh.

I still do the whole wax/mesh thing multiple times. a little OCD. I personally think if you have the time, setting up a rear end is pure entertainment. Different when I think about way back when, the first rear end I did, I was puckered during the build and for about 6 months after I put it into service, waiting for the boom.

 

[Dusty]

agree with everyone, if you've never done a rear end before and don't have more than 'every day' tools, pay someone. HOWEVER, after you screw up one or two, every rear end you do thereafter gets easier.

also, the hard part might be finding a shop manual for the rear axle. I think Ram still uses AAM rear ends but I don't think the one in your truck is old enough for there to be much specific literature on it.

Ram 1500s went to ZF diffs in 2014.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33 gallon fuel tank, factory dual exhaust, 18” wheels. Build date: 03 June 2018. Now at: 064222 miles.

 

[joesstripclub]

Can you swap out the differential on these without pulling the pinion? I'm getting ready to swap a wavetrac into my 350Z and some guys have had success leaving the pinion and just pulling the diff and ring gear and making sure your gears still mesh right when you reinstall. If so that makes the job way easier on the Rams.

 

[Wild one]

Ram 1500s went to ZF diffs in 2014.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Laramie Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33 gallon fuel tank, factory dual exhaust, 18” wheels. Build date: 03 June 2018. Now at: 064222 miles.

They went to ZF diffs in 2011

 

[kurek]

Can you swap out the differential on these without pulling the pinion? I'm getting ready to swap a wavetrac into my 350Z and some guys have had success leaving the pinion and just pulling the diff and ring gear and making sure your gears still mesh right when you reinstall. If so that makes the job way easier on the Rams.

When you're replacing the entire carrier it may not mesh exactly the same way. I'd probably take a stab at it if I was reusing the same ring gear since its radial profile won't be affected by the carrier change.

 

[62Blazer]

On the original quote it looks like it includes the labor to completely rebuild the axle. It states axle bearings so assuming they are planning replacing all of the bearings and seals. Technically if just installing the TrueTrac you don't need to mess with the pinion or axle bearings and seals which take a good bit of time. Depending on how many miles is on the truck it may not be a bad idea to do this, but point being I could see where labor could easily only be $500 if just replacing the differential itself. Total parts would be a lot cheaper if you only had the carrier bearings and you would only need to shim up the carrier portion (to set backlash and bearing preload). Replacing just the differential does not require anything to be done with the pinion gear (replacing racings, pressing on new bearings, setting pinion depth, crush sleeve, etc....) or replacing the axle shaft bearings and seals.

 

[jagman_xjs]

I went with a Eaton unit for mine. I am happy with my choice as mine was just a floating diff so it was not a true 4x4. PLUS I needed to put down the extra power that I added.

 

[JB Weld]

I agree with the comment to get the converter you want and wait to afford the diff swap if needed.

I just installed a Trutrac in my '19 Classic and it was easy. If coarse with 33,000 miles all my seals and bearings are in great shape.

No need to change extra seals, bearings, etc. I purchased the Trutrac from Jegs @$525, ring gear bolts for $40 ( make sure they're for ZF, not earlier) and Timken bearings and races @$65 off Amazon. I also (finally) bought a magnetic base dial indicator for $45 and borrowed a torque wrench to torque ring gear bolts to 166 ft/lbs. I also made a tool to torque the side adjusters, about $15 in materials.

I noted backlash @ .006" before. I didn't worry about how the gear pattern was because I set the backlash back to .006" and never pulled the pinion, so that depth didn't change. The 9.25 ZF has side adjusters instead of shims. I adjusted backlash and torqued adjusters to 75 ft/lbs to eliminate gear deflection.

 

[DILLIGAF]

Buy the tools and do it yourself .

 

[62Blazer]

I agree with the comment to get the converter you want and wait to afford the diff swap if needed.

I just installed a Trutrac in my '19 Classic and it was easy. If coarse with 33,000 miles all my seals and bearings are in great shape.

No need to change extra seals, bearings, etc. I purchased the Trutrac from Jegs @$525, ring gear bolts for $40 ( make sure they're for ZF, not earlier) and Timken bearings and races @$65 off Amazon. I also (finally) bought a magnetic base dial indicator for $45 and borrowed a torque wrench to torque ring gear bolts to 166 ft/lbs. I also made a tool to torque the side adjusters, about $15 in materials.

I noted backlash @ .006" before. I didn't worry about how the gear pattern was because I set the backlash back to .006" and never pulled the pinion, so that depth didn't change. The 9.25 ZF has side adjusters instead of shims. I adjusted backlash and torqued adjusters to 75 ft/lbs to eliminate gear deflection.

If the rear diff has side adjusters that is much easier and faster. A lot of the older style Dana axles have shims, and some of them are under the bearings. This means for every adjustment you have to pull the carrier and then pull the bearings off to get to the shims. With the side adjusters you just adjust the one side to get the right backlash, and then torque down the other side for the bearing preload and go.

 

[Jwithing]

On the original quote it looks like it includes the labor to completely rebuild the axle. It states axle bearings so assuming they are planning replacing all of the bearings and seals. Technically if just installing the TrueTrac you don't need to mess with the pinion or axle bearings and seals which take a good bit of time. Depending on how many miles is on the truck it may not be a bad idea to do this, but point being I could see where labor could easily only be $500 if just replacing the differential itself. Total parts would be a lot cheaper if you only had the carrier bearings and you would only need to shim up the carrier portion (to set backlash and bearing preload). Replacing just the differential does not require anything to be done with the pinion gear (replacing racings, pressing on new bearings, setting pinion depth, crush sleeve, etc....) or replacing the axle shaft bearings and seals.

I was actually wondering avout that myself but thought I would see if someone pointed it out. 102k miles on the truck. Just replaced the diff fluid 5k miles ago and it looked great.

 

[Jwithing]

Buy the tools and do it yourself .

Sure is tempting if I couple find some better/complete walkthroughs

 

[DILLIGAF]

Sure is tempting if I couple find some better/complete walkthroughs

I just watched Jeep Axle swap videos for a few days and did my gear swap. Tons of TrueTrac install videos on there as well.

Just swapping out the TrueTrac is a piece of cake compared to setting the pinion depth

 

[BacavilleHemi]

I have the Detroit Truetrac and I love it. All gears and no clutches to replace.
It works great in the rain.
It took a year for Eaton to make one for the 2015 Dodge Rams. It was worth the wait.

 

[Wild one]

I have the Detroit Truetrac and I love it. All gears and no clutches to replace.
It works great in the rain.
It took a year for Eaton to make one for the 2015 Dodge Rams. It was worth the wait.

You could put the earlier True Trac for the AAM diffs into the ZF diff,but you had to replace the ring and pinion with the earlier AAM ring and pinion.Wasn't a big deal if you were replacing the gears,but it did add a fair chunk to the bill if you didn't need or want a gear replacement.I've had the earlier AAM True Trac unit in my ZF diff for 5 years

 

[Diablo2doorram]

You could put the earlier True Trac for the AAM diffs into the ZF diff,but you had to replace the ring and pinion with the earlier AAM ring and pinion.Wasn't a big deal if you were replacing the gears,but it did add a fair chunk to the bill if you didn't need or want a gear replacement.I've had the earlier AAM True Trac unit in my ZF diff for 5 year