Who on the net sells them and what is changed? Is it the whole rear end or just the gears?

 

You can get the gears at several site sponsors including SDPC (Scoggin Dickey our GM sponsor). Do you have a factory limited slip? You may need a new carrier. And I would letsomeone that has done it before help you. Thunder Racing may be able to help you out. They are down the road a couple hours or so from you in Baton Rouge.

Greg

 

What's changed are only internal parts; bearings, shims, crush sleeve, pinion gear, ring gear, and like fast 4.8 said, sometimes the carrier. The housing is left alone. When pricing gears, make sure that includes the install kit, which has all misc parts listed above.

Setting gears is a painstaking process that few can really master. I'd find a good shop if you don't have your own equipped garage, tons of patience, and a willingness to learn. Changing gears is the best time to upgrade lockers/LSD too.

My $.02

 

Yeah, I got the factory limited-slip w/ 3.42 gears. What is a locker and LSD? I don't know much at all about the rear end.

 

I'll see if I can find you a post or a website that better explains the differences between a Locker and LSD. In the mean time, here's my jackleg explaination.

An Open carrier uses spider gears and usually sends torque to one wheel (ie axle shaft) or the other.

A Limited Slip Differential, also colled Positive traction, Posi traction, or LSD, uses clutches or other methods of limiting the amount of torque that is send to one wheel or the other. It provides better traction on level paved surfaces in that it will divide power between the two axle shafts, but it will not lock them together

A locker, (such as Detroit, Lock Right, ARB, etc.) will actually mechanically lock the two axle shafts together providing 100% of the available traction. It is supposed to automatically unlock during a turn or curve in the road, but most automatic lockers don't do this very well. It will spin inside tires and/or drag outside tires on a tight curve when under power. Not very street friendly, but great traction.

A spool, also known as hillbilly locker, lincoln locker, welded shut diff, locks the two axle shafts together all the time. Essentially, you no longer have a "differential" per se because there is no differentation made between the two axle shafts. It sucks for everyday driving. Infact, it's down right impossible to use on the street, but there is no better traction device for strip only acceleration!

I didn't get into the MANY variations of each type of device (such as that there is a difference in a mini spool and full spool) but I think you get the point. If I find any websites dealing with each, I'll post them.