I had to take advantage of this temporarily beautiful Chicago weather we had today and head up to the track. This was my fourth time running my Firebird since i bought it late last fall and I'm absolutely loving the thing.

BUT.. then the car decided it only wanted to have one driven wheel.

Ultimately, I made three runs. The first and third it was only spinning one wheel. The second, it did light them both up. However, at the end of the third run it was making a ticking sound from the rear and I decided to call it a day before I put myself on a hook.

I'm at kind of an impasse as far as what to do. I don't have any crazy goals, I just want the thing to be able to touch high to mid 11s at the track on my slicks.

Car's a 96 A4 with the following mods: intake, exhaust with long tubes, 3200 stall converter, shift kit, 1.6RR, 3250lbs with a full tank and me in it. Best of the three runs was 13.5 @ 102 on drag radials and inconsistently hooking up (60s were 1.9, 2.1, 1.9).

I've slowly been assembling the parts I need to get the thing moving. I've got a 268xfi to drop in and the car is wired for a 150 shot that I've been waiting to work up the ***** to play with. 3.90s were actually next on my to-do list.

My question is... with the work that I've already done and considering that the cam and 150 shot will likely up and running by the time I finish fixing this, what is my best option for actually repairing the rear?

Is it worth replacing the 10 bolt clutch packs? Should I be finding a new posi unit and swapping that in? Am I going to need a heavier rear, as a whole, in order to support my goal and remain reliable?

I would appreciate any advice you guys could offer! Thanks!

 

98s' and earlier have Auburn 'posi's which have cone clutches,not clutch packs as found in Eatons. They are not rebuildable as the cone spirals AND the carriers' inner surface that mates to the cones wear out. When an Auburn reaches the end of its' service life,time to replace the entire carrier.

 

^^^exactly... don't mess with the Auburn unit, just pitch it in the garbage. Best suggestion I have for you at this point is that being you have an A4 car then get a Eaton clutch type posi unit and do the gear change at the same time. I would also suggest a solid pinion bearing spacer and a LPW rear girdle cover when you do the work. This combo should last you quite a while if you don't abuse it as shock loads are what kills the 10 bolt rearends. Give us a call when you're ready to buy the parts... we have killer deals on all the rearend components.