Locking your Dana 44 Trac Loc, Part 1

By Tom Clark

I have a 1973 Scout II with a rear Dana 44 factory Trac-Loc that did not seem to be providing much Limited Slip action. The Dana Trac-Loc limited slip traction device came factory installed in many Scout vehicles. Unfortunately the clutch pads it uses to limit slip tended to wear out by around 40,000 miles. Newer materials are now employed which offer a greater life span and a hardier grip than the earlier counter parts. The Trac-Loc limited slip units are still popular today both in off-road, racing and just about any application where limiting the slip of your tires is of benefit. The parts for rebuilding a Trac-Loc can be bought for under $100 and the labor is said to be on par with doing a brake job.

As popular as the Trac-Loc is, many off road enthusiast prefer a true differential locking device. True ‘lockers’ tend to use locking paddles or teeth to lock the axle shafts together so that they turn in unison as opposed to clutches which permit some slippage. While clutch type limited slip units are generally preferred over locking traction devices on the street (or anywhere you tend to have good traction) lockers tend to be preferred off-road where traction is often medium at best. Some off-road enthusiasts rarely drive on the street while others of us might drive a hundred miles or more to off road locations not to mention driving to work on paved roads. Some locking devices have been viewed as being to aggressive for regular driving on pavement. Like all technologies in use locker technology has regularly made improvements. Newer designs have begun to soften the concerns about their use on paved roads. The lockers have become more pavement friendly both in their habits of locking and the noise sometimes associated with locking and unlocking. They have also gotten stronger while the number of lockers available has grown.

One advantage to rebuilding a Trac-Loc LS is that you do not have set up the gears. If were to replace your Trac-Loc with a popular locker like Detroit Locker you would in fact be installing a new carrier unit which needs to be set up correctly. The Detroit Locker comes built into a new carrier which in theory is slightly different in critical dimensions from your original Trac-Loc carrier. When you re-install the new carrier with ring gear attached there is a good chance it will not be properly located and thus will not interact with the pinion gear in a manner that lends itself to longevity. The Cost of Dana 44 Detroit locker starts at just over $500, setting up the gears costs will run from $250-$500 per axle. You can do it yourself but you will need some tools that most of us don’t have in our garages, the cost of which could easily run over $1000. There is detailed instruction available for setting up gears from many sources if you’re curious.

Other lockers which do not require gear set ups are available. The level of difficulty on most of these are said to be on par with doing a brake job just like rebuilding your Trac-Loc. Many of these new lockers are said to be streetable and cost less than a bench mark model like the Detroit Locker. The slang for these lockers is “lunch box locker” and includes brands like Detroit EZ Lock, Powertrax Lock Right, and the Aussie Locker. For the sake of price comparison I would like to mention that a pair of Aussie lockers for the front and the rear of your Scout can often be purchased for under $500 as opposed to the just over the $500 mark for a single Detroit Locker which is additionally more expensive to install. Price wise there is plenty of incentive to try a lunch box locker. The problem for me and many other Scout enthusiasts is that none of the aforementioned lockers are built to fit in the Dana Trac-Loc carrier. Lucky for us the folks at Powertrax saw fit to build a model that does fit the Trac-Loc Carrier. It is part of their newer line of lunch box lockers called No-Slip. To my knowledge the Powertrax No-Slip is the only locker available to fit the Dana Trac-Loc carrier. Any other locker would require the carrier to be replaced with an open carrier or locker which comes in its own case such as the Detroit, ARB, Ox etc.

So as you can see the choice of a Powertrax No-Slip locker is Academic (to borrow a phrase). If you have a Dana Trac-Loc carrier in your Scout you can not only buy this locker for $400-$500 but you can install it your self. The No-Slip runs about $100 more than it close cousin the Lock-Right. It was designed to be stronger and quieter than the Lock-Right unit which enjoys a rather healthy reputation. I would have easily tried one of the less expensive lunch box lockers if it would have fit the Trac-Loc carrier.

I shopped around; the prices were all over the place ($396-$546). John Fleck of Back County Binders bent over backwards to win me as a customer and he was also very encouraging about the project. In fact once many moons ago when I was crying about the money and the time I was putting into my Scout John said “You can go spend $40,000 on a new Durango that is not fit drive over the curb or you can put $10,000 into a Scout that will take you anywhere you want to go.” So thanks again John.

For my money I got the locker and all its parts, a set of instruction and user manual and a bunch of stickers. This unit is proudly made in the United States.


As you can see, there really are not that many pieces to the locker. The instructions are also very clear.

While waiting for the locker to arrive I was stuck with a concern. Some of the Trac-Loc units hold the Pinion shaft with a roll or threaded pin or ‘C’ clips. (Not to be confused witha C-clip axle). The No-Slip unit is designed to work with a retainer Pin type Trac-Loc but not the ‘C’ clip type. I asked around, and there does not seem to be any way to know other than looking at the Trac-Loc unit inside the differential. I called the tech support hot line for No-Slip on the Richmond website. The person I spoke to said that he had several customers who simply tack welded the Pinion shaft to the case carrier and it seems to work just fine, so I was relieved.

I am going to use the factory installation instructions as the basis for my write up, I will be adding commentary and photos.
The steps for installation go like this;

1) Put truck in gear or park and turn off engine.
2) Set Parking Brake
3) Safeguard the vehicle from rolling (chalk tires)
4) Raise vehicle and apply jack stand

You will want to put jack stands under the frame to support the rear of your truck and allow the rear axle to droop. (and as we all should know do not use concrete block, bricks or cinder blocks as jack stands) I live in California and I have been under a Scout working when an earth quake hit so I always use jack stands and then I try to strategically place the floor jack and tires as back up in case the vehicle should move.

5) Put transmission in neutral and release parking brake
6) Remove differential cover and drain fluid. Clean the diff cover and housing sealing surface.
7) Remove the axle retaining bolts located on the inside of the brake backing plates. Pull out both axle shafts approximately 8”.

To get this far you need to take the wheels off of course, pull off the brake drum, then you can access the bearing retainer plates through a hole in the end of the axle.




8) Expose pinion shaft; remove retaining bolt/roll pin and shaft.

Retaining Bolt? Roll pin? Well some Trac-Locs do not use a bolt of pin to keep the pinion shaft in place. The No-Slip unit was not designed to work with a Bolt or a Pin but you can get around this be simply tack welding the Pinion shaft to the carrier. My Trac-Loc had two “C” clips on the Pinion shaft and no springs.


I used two standard screw drivers crossed in an ‘X’ pattern to engage the openings in the “C” clips and push them off the shaft. It was actually really easy in spite of the cramped space. Note the chipped teeth, I guess the previous owner did not have a good dental plan. Now here comes the next set back.

• 1Shifting the Scout 2-Speed Transfer Case
• 2How to identify a Dana / Spicer axle.
• 3Automatic Overdrive Transmission For IH V8s
• 4CV Style Front Driveshaft For Scout 80/800
• 5Power Lock Clutch Replacement
• 6How To Replace A Pinion Seal
• 7Locking your Dana 44 Trac Loc, Part 1
• 8Locking your Dana 44 Trac Loc, Part 2
• 9Auto Shifter Boot Replacement
• 10Axle Swapper Info by Wheeled Scout