I've got a Strange Engineering 12 bolt rear end in my '95 Camaro running 3.73 gears in the Yukon differential. I've recently had the M6 transmission professionally rebuilt. I also had a mech replace all the bearings and seals in the rear end. I have a question.

How much rotational slop should I have at the yoke? I have about 1/4" to a 1/2" rotational free play at my yoke? I understand there is backlash between the pinion and ring gear but it's measured in thousandths.

The rear end works just fine but my problem is the car sounds like an old truck! It clunks and clanks at low speed operation and you can feel the play when you begin moving slowly like in traffic. Stomp on it and it jumps up and goes and on the road the gear whine virtually non existent, but around town it's driving me crazy.

I've been told it's normal but I don't remember having this in my 10 bolt or when this 12 bolt was new. I bought it around 2013 so it is 8 years old and has around 50-60,000 miles on it.

 

From my experience with the Strange 12-bolt, that is not normal. Didn't sound different than the 10-bolt, didn’t have excessive rotational slop or clunks. And it didn’t develop any related problems even after doing 5,000+ RPM clutch dumps (McLeod Street Twin/steel flywheel), full slicks on a sticky track. That was 20 years ago, so take that for what my failing memory is worth

 

That's what I expected from mine Injuneer. But I've had had issues with mine from Day 1.

 

I was just under my car last weekend to replace my drive shaft safety loop, which obviously required the drive shaft to be taken out. I had no noticeable slop in my yoke.

 

Thanks for the info.That's what I expect!

I'm going Monday to a performance shop and the owner and I are going to look at it and possibly open up the rear end and do some checking.

 

Shop confirmed there's a problem with the rear end in the differential. I've ordered a new rear end from Moser. I'll tear down my current Strange rear end after I make the swap. I am convinced it was a bad setup from the start.

 

Do you remember having all the play when you first installed?

 

Yes, I did though not as bad. I've had issues with the rear end since I got it. I reached out to Strange more than once with no satisfaction. Their rep in Louisville had just had surgery so he couldn't help. Another guy Strange sometimes uses wasn't happy with Strange so he wasn't much help either. Since it was driveable I just lived with it but now I need to get it right and so ordered the Moser with an Eaton Truetrac. I'm already impressed with them and have received much better customer service. It's supposed to be ready the end of this week or early next week.

 

Lame that you had to drop the cash for another rear end though when you already put down a chunk of change.

 

It's a shame that Strange has fallen from grace. I'm sure you've heard my Strange story. Purchased 12-bolt around 1998. Received in good condition, fully lubed, run in by Strange, spent a Sunday afternoon installing it, by myself. And it just happened to be Halloween, the back end of the car was sticking out of the garage, so I couldn’t ignore the small kids with their parent walking up my driveway.

First crisis - wasn’t wearing my gloves, pulled a rear wheel off, it dropped fast and smashed my middle finger between the hub bore and and a hub stud. Split it open like a grape, bleeding like crazy. Taped it up, then put on the gloves (duh) and finished the swap. Took the cover off the hole on top of the diff for the ABS sensor. Stuck (index) finger in hole to see how deep to adjust the sensor. Oops, no reluctor teeth.

Called Strange on Monday, they checked my order and said they put a carrier without the reluctor in the build. The Eaten carrier had to have the teeth machined into the flange behind the ring gear. Told me to send the whole thing back. No thanks, it's already installed. The tech immediately said he would get the name of a qualified local shop (a shop I approved of), send the new carrier to the shop for replacement, and warranty both the parts and the shop's work for an extended period.

Looked over the local shop, talked with the owner and agreed. Took a month to get the carrier, took the car in, guy jacked it up - no lift. Pulled the cover, and MANUALLY measured the backlash by rolling the carrier up and down. Told me it was 0.008 - now I'm skeptical. Manages to extract the carrier without removing the sway bar, etc. Presses the bearings on the new carrier, reinstalls, does the manual backlash trick and confirms it’s correct. Fills with lube and LSD. I drive away.

Perfect setup. Drove it that way for 4 years with the T56 and huge clutch dumps, No noise. After converting to the TH400, had my shop install 4.11’s in place of 3.73’s - still going strong, still quiet. Well, ironically the Strange ABS sensors have a habit of living very short lives, so I stopped replacing it. Should have just accepted the missing reluctor teeth, and taken a refund.

 

Yes it does stink that I'm having to do this but I'd like to drive it without it sounding like the rear end is gonna fall out. I was in the parking lot at my tire store this week trying to maneuver into a parking spot and people waiting in line are looking over at me; they can hear the noise the rear end is making.

I'm hearing more and more stories like yours Injuneer.

I've been very impressed working with the guys at Moser. Much easier to talk to and very helpful. The rearend is supposed to be ready by next week. I'm going to drive up and get it.

Looking forward to having it right.

 

I have only had to call support about the ABS sensor on the 3 channel. It is a REALLY poorly designed sensor where the wires are known to snap off. I was less than impressed myself on that front, but the rear has been pretty awesome other than that. Crazy story Fred, I would have been pissed too.

 

I think I was the unlucky one who got a bad build. I plan to open it up and see what I can find out once I've replaced it.

The abs sensor is most definitely the Achilles Heel for the Strange 12 bolt. It doesn't help that it's near $100 to get one including shipping.

 

Hopefully you'll be able to fix it fairly inexpensively and recoop some of your money selling it.

 

Went and picked up my Moser Engineering 12 bolt Tuesday. I'm in the process of getting it swapped in. It is substantially more solid than the Strange but not as much of a bolt in. I'm having to swap my caliper mounts, get the axle bearings pressed on, and then install the axles. It uses the standard GM 3 channel ABS sensor. I'll be glad to get away from that thing Strange uses with the small, fragile wires. Everyone at Moser has been very pleasant to talk with and have answered my questions without any drama.