Look what I just picked up 2.5 hours ago. 8" Auburn posi. Rebuilt by local gear-guru, Jesse McHugh. He contracts with a lot of the Mustang shops and high-end builders in town. Been in the business for around 40 years. $250. I was cruising around Craig's list looking for 8" traction locks when I clicked the "back" button and saw this at the top of the page. Wasn't there 30 seconds ago. When I called Jesse, he said he just posted the ad 5 minutes prior. Call it what you want: luck/grace, I'm just grateful to find this. Been looking for a relatively inexpensive one for months.
I'll ask him next time I see him. He told me if I felt in over my head trying to set my third-member up myself, to bring it back to him and he'd cut me a deal. Jesse's a real good guy and is a wealth of knowledge, which, surprisingly, he is more than willing to share. Rear axles are all he does. He says that a lot of people think these can't be rebuilt, but, as a licensed representative he gets access to many parts the general population doesn't. Jesse also mentioned that Auburn has a program by the name of "D-Rex," where they will replace/rebuild a warrantied posi for any reason if it fails within 4 years if you send it in to them. So, he got his hands on this one, which had been returned to a local shop when it broke. The owner wanted to upgrade to a stronger one, so sending it back to Auburn would've been pointless. Jesse used his license to order the parts they use in the D-Rex program to rebuild it.
Nice find, usually deals like that are never local and the shipping ruins the deal. Ive had my Auburn Pro unit in my 9" for 13 years and still working great, I tested it last night.
Sweet. Hey, is there really that big of a difference between the stock trac-lok and the Auburn units? What makes them so much better, anyway? Is it the way the friction materials inside are set up?
I honestly dont know the difference. I say its nice that my 13 year old Auburn is working in the mav with pretty low use. But also the stock track lock in my 93 Mustang is also working great after 19 years and 95000 miles. But im sure the Auburn has some strength benefits to stay working at higher horsepwer use.
