Superior Axle's Super 88 Kit - Awesome Exploder Rear Ends

After removing the majority of dirt and grime from the axle housing it is time to cut off the old bearing ends of the axle tube. Make sure not to cut off the caliper bracket centering shoulder (the small lip protruding through the caliper bracket). The Super 88 is more of a hybrid axle, yet it can accept any 31-spline, 8.8 differential while retaining factory disc brakes with ABS compatibility.

Once the bearing ends have been cut off and de-burred, Superior's billet c-clip eliminator ends can be pressed into the axle housing. The easiest way to mount these new ends on the axle is to install four housing end bolts with an oversized spacer nut, and a non-locking nut. Torque the bolts evenly in a crisscross pattern, until the eliminator housing end is properly seated within the axle housing. These bolts will be removed before finishing the installation. One of the best parts of this upgrade is that the weight of the vehicle will no longer be supported solely by the four housing end bolts (stock design), but will now ride on the bearing (being supported by the axle housing). To top it all off, Timken Set 20 bearings are used (just like in a Ford 9-inch).

It's much easier to understand how the Auburn ECTED works when you can see a nice exploded view of its internals. Remember that the ECTED is not a 100 percent locking differential, making it unsuitable for extremely abusive applications (which is why they are not made for Dana 60s or 14-bolts). Instead, the ECTED uses an electromagnetic coil (A) to create a magnetic flux and pull in the pilot cone (C). The force of attraction between these two parts applies excess pressure on the differential's clutch pack (B).

Here is the Auburn ECTED with Superior's 4.56 ring gear installed on it. We kept the 8.8's tone ring, and installed it on the new ring gear. This is important in order to maintain a properly functioning Vehicle Speed Sensor which are found on many newer vehicles.

As in any ring an pinion install, it's important to properly shim the setup in order to achieve a uniform wear pattern in the center (radially that is) of the ring gear's teeth.

In order to wire up the ECTED locker, we needed to drill a hole into the top of the axle housing. And although it may seem completely obvious, make sure that the hole is located properly in order to keep the wires taut and away from any moving parts.

Speaking of not pulling wires through the housing, this little tab stops the electromagnetic coil (where the ECTED's power wires are attached to) from spinning during operation.

The stock C-clip shafts are held in the axle housing by a "C" shaped clip that rides in the groove shown here. Besides the apparent weak points this physical design introduces to the overall strength of the shaft, the C-clip is the only thing holding the shaft into the housing. If you end up snapping the shaft, the rotating tire will likely pull the shaft straight out of the axle, unexpectedly leaving you with a three-wheeler.

Superior's 31 spline axle shafts are American-made from 4340 chromoly steel. These shafts are much stronger than the stock C-clip design.....

.....Once the axleshafts had the bearings pressed on and were fitted with the necessary flanges and spacers from the kit, Superior Axle's Martin installed the new assemblies into the axle housing.

Here is an inside view of the Super 88's C-clip Eliminator sandwiched between the housing end and brake backing plate.

After a few hours of work, we had the new 31-spline chromoly shafts installed and the axle almost buttoned back together. Finally we bolted the brakes back on. Although we would love a set of three-piston calipers with slotted & cross-drilled rotors,.....

......the stock disc brakes will still work well after a thorough cleaning and a new set of brake pads, and a mega-bucks brake kit would make this axle build sort of lose its cost effectiveness. All that is left is to fill it up with gear oil and find a vehicle to wire it into.