1996 z28 M6, bolt on mods in signature, stock 3.43 rear end, 106,000 miles.

It's been pretty wet here the last few days, and i took off a little hard out of a friends driveway, turning to the left. I expected the car to kick sideways like it always has done in the past, wet, dry, turning, straight, you name it, it's always been both tires spinning.

Instead, i was greeted with a nasty whine and a one-wheel peel. I immediately got off the gas and let the car do it's thing, then drove away normal. Come to think of it, it's done that once or twice before while spinning on some grass....

Is my rear end about to say see ya? or does it just need a good fluid change and some new limited slip additive?

Thanks for any input you can give!
Tim

 

well, some limited slip differentials are a bit touchy. when on a slight uneven surface, or on the wet, one wheel will likely spin. the LSD is setup to send most of the power to the wheel that is spinning the least, unless doing a straight shot on even pavement, where both wheels will do almost equivillant work. in the wet, the lsd probably recognized the lack of traction, putting all the power to the wheel with the most amount of traction. it can be a tricky little bugger. i once did a burnout with an auburn HD lsd in the plain dry in the parking lot. it must have been uneven cuz i did the wildest one weelie peelie i've ever seen. i don't think there's anything wrong, but the clutches are getting pretty old in the 109k rear. u might want to invest in a nice set of gears and a HD differential just in case.

 

I don't know what's happening, but I too have done a one wheel burn-out.

 

well, the one wheel peel didn't concern me as much as the nasty whine that accompanied it... as far as i know, it's stock and i'm sure the people who owned it before me weren't light on it.

Is there a rebuild kit available with new clutches, or are they not replaceable?

 

you don't want to mess with a stock posi. invest in a good posi, or even an slp takeout unit which is a zexel torsion single worm piece. very nice, and does fine with decent power. also only costs 99 bucks and they have around 100-300 miles on them.

 

I'm not sure if you are really understanding the operation of a posi. a posi doesn't have both wheels turning all the time. a posi actually lets the car operate with one wheel driving under lighter acceleration. a posi is meant to kick in the left wheel once the right wheel loses traction. so you are basically running on one wheel drive until you start to lose traction in most cases. (notice how the right tire always wears out before the left tire)
both wheels will kick in if you are hammering on the gas, doing donuts, etc. However, if you are on an uneven surface on a wet surface, the posi will kick power to the wheel that has the best traction. a good example is if you line your car up so that one wheel is on the grass, and one is on the road. power brake it or just punch it and the wheel that is on the cement will get all the power and roast it. this is a technique often used by people trying to get the nubs off of their new tires but just because you floor it (lets say for a burnout), it doesn't mean both wheels are going spin because u might be on an uneven terrain, or one wheel might be more slippery than another. hopefully this helps.