Spools

jfor441 · Feb 1, 2008

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a mini spool in a daily driver? When i say daily driver, I mean I live 10 miles from work and might drive a total of 80 miles in a day. Which would be not very often.

What exactly does a spool do versus the traction lock or any other devices? If you have links to how these things work it would be great.

My car is slowly becoming a daily driven track car. My goal with the car is to start bracket racing this year. My rear end is making a noise and I am looking at rebuilding it sometime soon so I am looking at doing it right the first time I rebuild it.

ryclef331 · Feb 1, 2008

I wouldn't put a "mini" spool in a car. With stock axles its really not wise in my opinion. A mini spool just rides in the stock carrier and locks your stock axles together. THere is ZERO slip...so when you turn one tire is going to "scrub" or chirp. I've ridden in car with a FULL spool and it is tolerable. You just have to remember its back there especially when turning in the rain and what not. It is not an area where you want to cheap out on especially if you need to drive the car daily AND wanna flog it on the track. Going full spool is strong but you have to go with c-clip eliminators which as far as I know, you can't run ABS with them and you need to get aftermarket axles...so the cost of a cheap spool just went up substantially. When I built MY car, I wanted bullit proof, ZERO LEAKS (c-clip elims tend to leak over time from Daily Driving...not all but some), and never wanted to worry about rebuilds ever again. I purchased, 31 spline moser axles and a Detroit Locker. When it locks, it locks HARD. No clutches to wear out or rebuild. Its still C-Clip axles but I'm not making enough power to really test them.

In all honesty, If I were you, I would rebuild your current trac lock for around 50 bucks and put an extra clutch in eachside of the diff to "tighten" it up. It will lock up alot harder in the back. I ran a repacked stock diff for ALONG time and it never let me down. I just swapped out for the peace of mind.

jfor441 · Feb 1, 2008

ryclef331 said:
I wouldn't put a "mini" spool in a car. With stock axles its really not wise in my opinion. A mini spool just rides in the stock carrier and locks your stock axles together. THere is ZERO slip...so when you turn one tire is going to "scrub" or chirp. I've ridden in car with a FULL spool and it is tolerable. You just have to remember its back there especially when turning in the rain and what not. It is not an area where you want to cheap out on especially if you need to drive the car daily AND wanna flog it on the track. Going full spool is strong but you have to go with c-clip eliminators which as far as I know, you can't run ABS with them and you need to get aftermarket axles...so the cost of a cheap spool just went up substantially. When I built MY car, I wanted bullit proof, ZERO LEAKS (c-clip elims tend to leak over time from Daily Driving...not all but some), and never wanted to worry about rebuilds ever again. I purchased, 31 spline moser axles and a Detroit Locker. When it locks, it locks HARD. No clutches to wear out or rebuild. Its still C-Clip axles but I'm not making enough power to really test them.

In all honesty, If I were you, I would rebuild your current trac lock for around 50 bucks and put an extra clutch in eachside of the diff to "tighten" it up. It will lock up alot harder in the back. I ran a repacked stock diff for ALONG time and it never let me down. I just swapped out for the peace of mind.

Cool deal... I am gonna definitely be needing to build my read end bulletproof. When the new motor goes in I will be 310+rwhp and will start spraying 150-200 of nitrous. That is my goal anyways. Once I get comfortable with the nitrous I will probably start leaving the line on spray. That is why I am looking at really building the rear end.

The goal with my car is low 7's in the 1/8th NA and low 6's in the 1/8th on spray. I am building my car around that goal.

LAFENATU · Feb 1, 2008

Spool is for a drag car.

19mustang95 · Feb 3, 2008

I'm going to run a spool in my cobra, but my car will probably never see the rain. Since both wheels are always turning at the same rate, it is easier to lose control in slick conditions...But other than that, and making alot of noise in parking lots from schreeeching the tires, having a spool is nice. My roomate has one in his Mach 1, he drives it from Orlando to Tampa all the time with no problems. And his car has pretty much a full drag stock-style suspension.

Jrgunn5150 · Feb 3, 2008

Ryclef summed it up pretty well, it's the equivilant of welding up spider gear's.

Another thing to cover is the fact that things back there will be binding, and it has to go somewhere. This tends to make the axle shafts act like torsion bar's, and eventually pretzel up.

Just do the trac-loc with extra clutches, the stock one's last for like 100k, so no worries there, not until you go alot further with you capabilities.