[SSLance]

Little update on this...

I picked up the rebuilt TracLoc and had my local shop install it in my third member. There was then plenty of discussion about what gear oil to run in it and friction modifier or no friction modifier... etc etc...

I've used just about every combination in the last one in the past 5 years, dino oil only, dino with modifier, synthetic, synthetic with modifier and lastly Royal Purple with a modifier already in it.

Frankly, for driving purposes I could not tell any difference between the different oils. Temps felt pretty much the same when being beat on...only difference I noticed was when I was fighting sealing issues, the synthetic would leak more than the dino oil. It's had the same ring and pinion gear in it since new, and they still look great.

The main part of the discussion was around the friction modifier and how it worked with the clutch pak. I always thought that the modifier was to help the clutch discs grab, but apparently the opposite is true. It is in there to help the clutches slip turning. I was talked into NOT running the friction modifier to help the clutches grab more therefore creating better torque bias when cornering on track.

So in went 3 quarts of Lucas Synthetic blend 75W-90 gear oil (new for me, about the only one I haven't tried before) and a test drive. The Lucas was the only synthetic without a modifier already added.

The car is barely driveable...it's fine in a straight line but acts and sounds like the whole rear end is coming out from under it while in any sort of a turn. While doing multiple figure 8s in a parking lot it gets much better, but as soon as you drive it in a straight line for a bit it starts to get very noisy and grabby in a turn again.

I decided to go to the horses mouth and talked with the person that did the rebuild on the TracLoc. He said Most Definitely a friction modifier of some sort is necessary with this type of clutch posi...no matter what gear oil you run. He also said that he set it up a bit tighter than a stock setup knowing that it was going into a 3500# car that will see abuse. His advice was to put some friction modifier in it and be patient as it breaks in...it'l take a bit longer to wear the clutches in a bit but it'll be better in the end than a stock type rebuild.

So I put 7 ounces of friction modifier suitable for synthetic gear oil in it before driving home last night and stopped in a parking lot on the way home and did many more figure 8s trying to get the modifier to embed into the clutch discs. So far, no difference. I've only got about 50 miles on it so far, and only 17 or so with the modifier in it...so I'll keep driving it and see what happens. It pains me though to hear and feel noises like that coming from under the car.

Maybe I should have found the extra $1,000 it was going to take to set myself up with a Trutrac...time will tell I guess. If this wears in and settles down like the guy that built it says it will, it should work fine for me, I just don't remember my last one having this much trouble breaking the clutches in.