When i bought my 02 it was the same way, I went to the local junkyard and pulled a few dana 70's apart until i found one with a limited slip, pulled it brought it home swaped my ring gear and reshimmed it works like a charm now.
The posi will hold more than the axle. Pretty tuff OEM unit, think they say there good for 700ish hp. When you find one take it apart and flip the frictions over, cheap rebuild.
I should have been more specific. The posi unit isn't going to be what fails, it will be the axle in general. I didn't mean to say the shafts, just alot less to type then pinion, ring gear, spider gears, etc, etc,
I'm with mstuck as well, besides from weighing the rear of the truck down...it's still crummy to have open diff...
Also, I'm slowly building it up for a drag/street truck, so tractions bars, more engine goodies, more tranny goodies, etc will be on the list. I would like to have a limited slip, posi lock, etc that will help put it to the ground in 2wd:lolly:
You both could get buy with a LS carrier in your 70s if your not going to be pulling. I have a detroit locker in my 80 and im not a big fan of it on the street. Im not planing on pulling any more so I think the locker is going to be comming out. SOON!