I agree that a posi is not as good as a spool,but 2 tires trying to hook is better than 1.I would guess if you had slicks or drag radials on a car that didnt have alot of torque you might get away with an open rear.As for the posi slipping,they seem to hold pretty good.Sometimes you see them slip at the track were its sticky.I would say a posi does help traction alot.Take a car and that comes with an open rear and put a posi carrier in it,it will usually spin alot less than it did before.
My first turbo T was an 87 Limited with an open rear, non G80. I put an air bag in the right rear spring and pumped it up to 20 psi. Every now and again I was able to get both wheels to spin when doing a burn out.
You have to launch a little softer than with a posi but back in 1988 I got that car to run 13.3s at 101 on 235/60R15 street tires. The MPH was low because I was getting KR upstairs most likely due to a weak fuel pump. Mods were a K&N cone filter, KB chip, no cat.
With the exception of Roy Rauch, Greg Voss (I think that was his name....he had a 87 GN and a tan GS), Eric Schertz and Lazaris (screen name on this board) ......guys who always ran M&Hs and race gas (Eric sometimes ran race gas), I had the fastest TR on Hempstead Tpke in Levittown NY. And there were A LOT of TRs on the Pike back in 88 lol.
So it's possible to go pretty fast w/o a posi. The air bag pumped up to 20 psi helped.
Those were the good old days.
It would be a very easy and your best option. Shims rarely need to be changed when doing so. Just keep them on the same sides they came out of. Even the Eaton and Auburn ls units seem to go in without the need to re- shim in most instances. Id throw a set of fresh clutches in the posi before installing it. Probably take an inexperienced person 2 hrs to do the change. Ring gear bolts are left threaded. So dont tighten them and break them off in error .Would it be worthwhile to install a stock GN posi carrier? And is it something that I could tackle or is it best left to the experts?
I really don't know what type of mechanical experience you have but I did mine and it was fairly easy. I went from the pegleg to and eaton and it may a big difference to me.It would be a very easy and your best option. Shims rarely need to be changed when doing so. Just keep them on the same sides they came out of. Even the Eaton and Auburn ls units seem to go in without the need to re- shim in most instances. Id throw a set of fresh clutches in the posi before installing it. Probably take an inexperienced person 2 hrs to do the change. Ring gear bolts are left threaded. So dont tighten them and break them off in error .
Its very hard to do a burnout with an open rear. Thats why they are somewhat critical. The posi does little for traction after the car is launched under power. You need to equalize the force on both sides of the rear so that the tires have equal traction. Traction is equal till one of the tires slips. Preventing the less loaded tire from slipping will maintain traction. An air bag in the right side is a good start. Ballast over the right rear will help also. I cant believe people actually think a few clutches will actually prevent the tires from spinning. It sure as hell wont. You can easily make a posi rear slip with a breaker bar if one side of the car is on the ground and the other is jacked up. Our engines are supplying way more torque then we could ever apply by hand that is then multiplied through the converter, trans, and rear gear before it hits the tires. Nothing to do with a posi.
I said once one tire loses traction all the torque will go to the tire that slipped. None to the other. Therefore you wind up spinning one tire. Therefore proper burnout is not easy. One hot tire one cold. With a limited slip there isn't enough brake away torque to slip either axle during a water burnout because the clutches are loaded by the spring. So both wheels will have even torque and both will spin at the same rpm. Once both tires are properly heated and the suspension loaded the limited slip does about nothing to prevent further wheelsman on launch. Proper suspension setup does everything.Sorry this is soo old but I need some info from ya. It's hard to do a burnout with an open rear? How do you figure that? You said that when one tire starts to spin, it gives more torque to it. How would that equal a harder burn out? I've had an open in every car I owned, and it was VERY easy to do a burnout. I'm missing something. My posi rear end is a little harder to do a burn out in.
I said once one tire loses traction all the torque will go to the tire that slipped. None to the other. Therefore you wind up spinning one tire. Therefore proper burnout is not easy. One hot tire one cold. With a limited slip there isn't enough brake away torque to slip either axle during a water burnout because the clutches are loaded by the spring. So both wheels will have even torque and both will spin at the same rpm. Once both tires are properly heated and the suspension loaded the limited slip does about nothing to prevent further wheelsman on launch. Proper suspension setup does everything.
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Go grab a breaker bar and jack the car so one rear wheel is off the ground and get on a lug and turn clockwise. You will see that the limited slip will give. The same way it gives in a turn. Think about how much torque it took to make it slip. 100 ft lbs? Notice the other tire didn't slip. The engine has 500 ft lbs of tq on a mildly modified engine. Then it goes through the converter which will multiply tq, then through first in the trans (2.76:1, 200-4R) then multiplied times the axle ratio. The torque at the center of the axle is 4719 ft lbs not including anything the converter adds to the mix which at certain ranges is doubling the engines output. it took 100 ft lbs to make the limited slip slip. If the tires don't slip the diff could be open and traction is still equal because the tq to each wheel remains equal till one slips.Ahh a PROPER burn out. Ok then, that makes sense. I was very confused lol. So going off of that, if one slips, and it gives even more torque to it, then tell me how a limited slip still does nothing on a proper launch. There's a reason performance cars got posi, while their non performance counter parts didn't. It must help traction.