Will a trac-loc for a '98 work in an '03

chini42

Founding Member
Nov 30, 2001
138
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17
Brownstown, Michigan
Will a trac-loc from a 96-98 stang wok in an '03? I just want to know before I go and bolt it in. I needed a new trac-loc and I got this one for free, but I am not sure if the housings are the same for the two. Thanks for the help

Chris
 
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Yes it will fit, but would strongly suggest you think about re-building it first or rebuilding your current t-lock. I think you can buy a t-lock rebuild kit for about $45. That would be better than going through the effort of swapping out the carriers and end up having that one fail on you. If you are going to do through the effort, might as well do it right the first time, it usually costs less doing it right the first time. Just my $0.02

Here's a link to Latemodel Restoration's t-lock rebuild kit:
http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/iwwida.pvx?;item?item_no=LRS-4700A 1&comp=LRS
 
Well, heres what happened. I broke the spider gears in my Mach and a friend of mine had 2 brand new assembled carriers that he had for his and his wifes car. So I ended up just putting his spider/side gears in my trac-loc on a friday night, so I didnt have to miss points the next day. On my 3rd pass, I wiped out the gears again. I just started working on it today to see exactly what went wrong. But when I had put his stuff in my car, my parts were already out of the car and set aside in a box so I never botherd to check if everything was the same.

That was a big mistake because I just went out there and pulled out my trac-loc and old side/spider gears and compared them to what my friend gave me. The gears and carrier are different for a '98 TL. The PN are different on them as well, I looked them up on my service manuals. I definately should have done that first.

So, I tried to rush the car back together to make it for points and lost in 1st round eliminations (still got some points for staging 1st round), but lesson learned. Im going to blame it on the girlfriend becasue she was sitting in the house waiting to go out friday night, while I was just trying to get the car together as quickly as possible. Even after I put it together everything looked fine and sounded fine because I took it on a quick test drive friday night to make sure. Thanks for all the quick responses though.

Chris