D30 Powertrax induced headache

I just installed a Richmond Gear Powertrax No-slip unit in my D30 on Tuesday; however, something's not quite right.

For starters, during installation the cross pin did not want to go in the carrier easily. Being an idiot, I gave it a couple of love taps with a hammer to seat it.
After putting everything together, I could not get the locker to release while turning the tires by hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah I can hear "Well why didn't you take it back apart?" When you get in a hurry bad things happen. Working against time constraints in a borrowed shop contributed to "It's late, get it back together and out of here-itis."

Now when I drive it, at low speeds when turning you can feel the front end move to the outside of the turn then spring back when the locker makes a really loud pop and does this repeatedly throughout the turn. Yet driving on the highway and changing lanes it acts fine.

I talked to a tech at Richmond who was moderately helpful but his main opinion was, "That's just the nature of our product."

I'm leaning towards one of the active spacers (the internally splined collar with the indexing tab on it) was defective (some initial alignment issues just test assembling it on the bench, one spacer didn't want to line up for the cross pin)or a spring came loose and got wedged in somewhere it shouldn't have.

A replacement active spacer set and spring kit are on the way just in case.

Putting one in my 8.25 was easy and you wouldn't even know it's there unless you give it too much throttle while turning on pavement. But, for some reason this front unit just wants to be a royal pain.

I read through quite a few posts before purchasing this and spent last night trying to find out what's wrong here. So what do you guys think? I would like to hear any other ideas or something I may have missed before I tear into this thing again. Removing everything but the pinion is not fun.

im with you thinking a spring might be out of place, or something is forcing it to stay engaged.

Thanks for the reply.

Did some more research, looks like inspection teardown time.

You have to be really careful when you put it together to make sure everything is lined up right. The center pin should slide in with no effort. I broke the paddle on the active spacer on both sides when it wasn't installed correctly.

I was talking to a buddy at work who had one in his Ram 1500, and he said they like to break when you get rough installing them too.

And the sad thing is, I SHOULD KNOW BETTER!! I've worked on my own cars since high school and did helicopter maintenance for a little while. Arrgh!

Oh well. Moral of the story is, using hammers to persuade parts to fit is generally considered a Bad Thing.

ok i put a powertrax no slip in my d30 about 5-6 months ago its dead silent and is completely invisible on the road in 2wd. did you take the thrust washers out when you put it in? something i didnt know you had to do with a no slip til i was doing mine. if you didnt then that little tolerence block they give you probly doesnt fit therefore your locker is pretty much a minispool right now

X2 on the thrust washer removal. I was doing a regular lunchbox locker install the other day and the center pin was so tight I would have had to hammer it in so I thought something was not right. I discovered that I needed to remove the thrust washers. They like to stick inside carrier so sometimes you dont even notice they are still in there.

x3 on thrust washers. The instuctions didn't say to put them back, nor did they say to leave them out. I wanted the clarification and called richmond before the install and they confirmed that no thrust washers are used with the powertrax.

in my d30 i couldnt even all 4 main pieces of the locker in with the thrust washers still in there. i realized thrust washers must have to go so i went in looked it up still covered in grease and noticed in the instruction pics it doesnt show putting them back in. curious to find out from the OP if thrust washers were the problem, let us know

Now that I'm thinking about it, I did have a couple of washers come out with the spider gears but I didn't check to see if there were any other shims or washers hiding in there.

The little go/no-go block said go when I did the check.

It will disengage very reluctantly, and with much popping and banging.

I'll post the results as soon as I get a chance to take it back apart.

The matching unit in my rear works flawlessly, though.

hmm wouldnt make sense for thrust washers if the block fit correctly, unless you happened to insert the block narrower way but im assuming you didnt do that if you have already installed one no slip

Ok,

Here's the answer to the riddle.

One of the active spacers was machined incorrectly for the cross pin that goes through the carrier. Also, I had to hone my carrier a little for the Powertrax cross pin to go in (had re used stock pin in initial assembly). And, finally, two of the saddle springs had moved when I hammered the pin in, thus wedging it closed and causing disengagement issues along with the spacer.

Moral of the story.....

If it don't feel right on the bench, take it back apart and inspect!!!! I've had nightmares of driving wondering when my diff was going to grenade with the music from Final Jeopardy playing over the radio.

Me: "I'll take potpourri for $500 Alex."
Alex: "This could have been easily been prevented by observing proper automotive maintenance procedures."
M: "What is a bottom end knock?"
A: "Sorry, the correct answer was, 'What is putting your Powertrax No-Slip in correctly the first time.'"

Anyway, took it out for a test drive. You don't even know the locker is there until you put it in 4WD and add power. (crap, no smiley for gratuitous drooling)

Glad you got it straight. I love my powertrax in my 8.8, wish I had gone that route in the 30 too.