Originally Posted by SpraydbySprague

Of all the people to answer first, right?

The diff slippage is from the ceramic balls, they are so smooth and hard the balls actually have less grip than the carbide balls. I sand my diff rings with 400 grit sandpaper when using ceramic diff balls. Since the diff balls have no grip, you have to give the rings grip. Of course sanding the rings will have to be done as part of maintenance now because the harder diff balls will eventually polish a groove into the diff rings causing the slip to come back. I'm actually considering switching to carbide diff balls and using ceramic for the thrust balls.

The short neck (black) ballstuds are used on the steering rack. It affects bump steer I think in a way that settles the front end down in the bumpy parts.

Those are the questions I had an answer for. Hope it was helpful.