Detroit locker question

[manky]

So here's the thing I've got a ford 9 inch with a Detroit locker style center. The question is why does it seem to have a huge amount of backlash ? About 1/8 to a 1/4 of a turn on the drive shaft. Now before you say that the gears are not set up right they are. Because thats what I thought. I pull the center out then striped it there are no broken bits and it all seems to be in good working order. Any ideas ?
Cheers Manky

[R Pope]

Just the nature of the beast. It takes that much rotation to switch from driving forward to driving backward. 1/4 turn seems a bit much, though. The lower the gear ratio, the more "slack" it will have. Is it a low ratio rear?

[manky]

It's a 2.73 or close to that. I did have 3.55 in it before and it was much the same.

Just the nature of the beast. It takes that much rotation to switch from driving forward to driving backward. 1/4 turn seems a bit much, though. The lower the gear ratio, the more "slack" it will have. Is it a low ratio rear?

[vara4]

They have some cool video's on youtube that a couple of mech. explain everything pretty well. It's neat to get some of thier veiws over there once in a while too.
Plus you get to see exactly what they do to take out some slack.
Kurt