JGKadell

iTrader: (4)

Which is better of the 2? My car is a 98 so it has the Auburn unit. I also have a spare rear with the Zexel in it.
Is one better than the other?

Scott@DrivelineSolutions

iTrader: (22)

I personally like the Torsen since the unit will not leave you stranded on the side of the road. The Torsen will start to make clucking noises on turns before it lets go and the Auburn's will just break the spider gears and put metal everywhere. Also I have seen axleshafts break way befor the Torsen unit starts to go bad.

alamantia

iTrader: (10)

torsen

Revelation Z28

iTrader: (10)

auburn

Speed

iTrader: (33)

Ran them all and prefer the torsen.

alamantia

iTrader: (10)

Auburn is crap

BlackScreaminMachine

iTrader: (17)

Torson

keliente

iTrader: (22)

prefer auburn

alamantia

iTrader: (10)

she just said that to show me up.

Zexels have about 436,000,000,000 worm gears working in them, its a great concept but because of the small diameter (7-1/2") the internals are rather small making them a little weak for the aplication im my opinion, great concept for a larger differential. The torsen is torque biasing which means it actualy sences when one wheel is slipping and will multiply torque to teh slipping wheel, however if the passenger side wheel is getting no traction whatsoever it will not work. Torsens work fine in mineral or synthetic oil with no friction modifier needed.

Auburns use a cone clutch, they do not "sence" slippage, teh cones just apply pressure to each spider gear on the axle making the carrier work like almost like a spool that can slip so the car can corner, (feel free to chime in if any of my info is wrong Marc 85Z28 has a lot of knowladge and loves showing us up) this therotecly provides a drag on the car when cornering, although not enough drag to inhibit the preformance of the car eventualuy the cones will wear out where as the torsen does not have clutches to wear, causing teh one wheel peal. Auburns also do require mineral oil with the friction modifier. I would imagine that the Auburn is a slightly more robust unit but the only car I had with one had a clicking in the rear and would sometimes not allow only one wheel to spin. I asume it was worn but it was only in there about 2 years before this started to occur. My brother had a Gov-loc in his suburban and it blew up, he went with an Auburn when he redid teh rear, for whatever reason he didnt like it and wound up taking it out a year or so later and put a Gov-loc back in.

again, its really a matter of personal prefference, i prefer the torsen, i think its a great advancement in differential design

ddelallata

iTrader: (2)

I recently bought an Eaton and am very happy with it.

alamantia

iTrader: (10)

Eatons my first choice

Revelation Z28

iTrader: (10)

Eaton is whats going in my future 12 bolt. havent heard anything durasticly bad about them.

my auburn was in new condition when i did the gears back in july. for 148k thats pretty good.

if you keep up with the rear end oil and keep it clean, i dont see how the auburn will wear out fast on the street.

12secSS

iTrader: (30)

I have broken about 3 or 4 Torsen units with my basic bolt on 2001 SS with in 2-3 years. Always the same, the worn gears get chewed up or the case breaks in half and I am left limping my way home. I drag race (cut 1.68 60's), road race, autocross and sometimes drift my SS. The torsen, from my experience, is not a bad unit if you just daily drive and rarely/ocassionally go to the strip, but for serious performance use (like every other weekend), it will not cut it. I have moved on to an Auburn Pro Posi. It has been in my 10-bolt for about a year now and I have no problems. I do not know how the stock Auburn is, but why stay with a stock differential if you can replace it.

ABA383

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, the Pro series Auburn is a very good unit..I had one in my old 10 bolt for 7 years and it never gave out...My Strange 12 bolt with the HD Eaton ain't doin so well after only 1 year of racing...Time for the spool...

--Alan

99zman

iTrader: (23)

is it a deffinate that 98-99 had aubrun and 2000 up had torsen?

alamantia

iTrader: (10)

True, the aftermarket Auburn is probably a better unit than stock, i didnt take that into consideration, I had the stock Auburn unit in my 95 and I didnt care for its preformance, i may have just gotten a dud though, my experiance is limited to just that one stock one I had. However, if I had a choice Id go with the Eaton first, Torsen second, Auburn 3rd, Gov-loc fourth and an open carrier lastly


And as far as I know Auburns were in 1993-1999 and Torsens were in the last three years, someone else should know for sure or maybe even google it

PunkNPonys

iTrader: (2)

Anyone else have any opinions on this? I vote for the Auburn, seems to be a more stronger design.

mzoomora

iTrader: (36)

I had an SLP take out Auburn in my S10 V8 sonversion for a few years and beat on it all the time, at the track with slicks and all. It took the abuse very well and never broke, the only reason it was ever replaced was that I got a good deal on a Auburn pro and switched it out.
I also used a torsen before and never had problems with it either. They seem to be the best handling diffs. My preference has always been Eaton since you can tune the bias and rebuild them yourself. Auburn has the rebuild program, but actually being able to do it yourself in the garage is a plus (if you know how). Less down time.
I think you will find that there are varying opinion based off of experience, and all of them have their pluses and minuses.

5_02ls1

iTrader: (20)

i like the auburn the torsen has too many small gears

Marc 85Z28

iTrader: (8)

Sorry if I ever corrected you and "showed you up" I promise, I won't do it again... I'll mind my business and let you continue to spread misinformation.

You're a big man giving out advice in this thread when you (judging by previous posts) don't know what feature designates something as a 10 bolt or 12 bolt. How bout that 9 bolt

And yes, I do have a little knowledge.