Stupid lockright... what's up with this thing?

[NotMatt]

Alright, so I finally finished my D44 buildup, and got everything together. Little bit of background on the setup: Wagoneer D44 front (LP) and wagoneer D44 centered rear. 5.13 Yukon gears in both, spool in rear and a 3.92+ carrier up front with a lockright. Front has/had stock wagoneer drive slugs. Both diffs have 80-140 weight oil in them, and are fully broken in and have had the fluid changed out.

When I first put everything together and test-drove it, things were great. I could faintly hear the lockright ratcheting around corners and I was happy as a clam, never got to test it in 4wd at first because my rear axle wasn't geared to match the front at that time.

The problems started after I finished regearing the rear axle. I finished up on a Sunday, and decided to start driving the rig to work on Monday. Locker was acting fine when I left my house, but after driving for 25 miles or so in a mix of highway driving and in-town, when I pulled a tight right turn into the parking lot at work, I heard a "clank, clank, clank"... basically the locker ratcheting, but much louder. I decided to chalk it up to the "lockright quirkiness" and left it at that.

I left the drive slugs in and basically started putting miles on it to break in the gears, just ignoring the noise, thinking it would go away when the locker was broke in. Then I realized it was only doing it when I turned right, so I pulled the front diff cover and inspected, things looked fine, and with the passenger tire in the air, I could spin it and the locker would ratchet like normal, but when I tried this same thing with the drivers side, it would ratchet once or twice and then lock up and try to spin the d-shaft, then start ratcheting again... Hmmm...

I wasn't sure what to do at that point, because I was in a hurry to get things buttoned up for the SNORT4x4 Reiter Pit cleanup, so I put it back together with new fluid and played around with it in 4wd... everything seemed to work fine except for the occasional clank when the locker unloads and lets off tension.

Snap to today, I wheeled it with no issues at all all the way up the Lake Isabelle trail to the log bridge, turned around, and started back down. Halfway down the locker started going nuts, whenever I was compression braking it would unlock on the driver's side with a loud bang, to the point where I could get on the gas, then let off and the locker would BANG very loudly. After coming down off the Isabelle trail and eating lunch, we headed up to the wall where I realized that when I was in 4wd, and turned left, the locker would do the same "unload with a loud BANG" behavior. Before long I realized that the locker wasn't work at all, and would ratchet the driver's side wildly whenever I got to a point where I needed it.

So... what the heck is going on here? Did I break it or is it installed incorrectly or something? I've heard something about re-using the stock thrust washers from the carrier when installing, but I'm not familiar with how this goes together as I did not install this locker in the carrier, I bought it like this.

Anybody have any ideas or similar experience? Jeeze... I just read this post, sorry it's so long but I like to be very detailed with my descriptions... :grinpimp:

[jeeplord]

You'd better pull it out now. Check the pins, make sure they haven't snapped, check the wear on the teeth. Sounds like your went out faster than most.

[sceep]

i'd guess broken pins.

[YZEATER]

did you make sure you removed all the old shims/didn;t leave any in the carrier when you put the locker in? my buddy put on in his truck and it was acting that way. when he took it back apart there wasn't enough clearance because of a shim left inside behind a side gear.

[Zane Znamenacek]

I had very similar behavior with a LR once. It turned out in my case that the axle housing was slightly bent on one side (not noticable with the naked eye). This meant that the unbent side worked normally, while the bent side acted as you described because the ratcheting teeth on that side were not getting uniform pressure all the way around the locker.

It could also just be broken pins. If you replace the pins and it still acts up, I'd suggest checking your housing for straighness.

[NotMatt]

I had very similar behavior with a LR once. It turned out in my case that the axle housing was slightly bent on one side (not noticable with the naked eye). This meant that the unbent side worked normally, while the bent side acted as you described because the ratcheting teeth on that side were not getting uniform pressure all the way around the locker.

It could also just be broken pins. If you replace the pins and it still acts up, I'd suggest checking your housing for straighness.


Oh now that would suck... I just finished putting this housing together with RE brackets for my XJ... I hope I didn't bend it in the process of putting it together (I was very careful not to overheat it).

I'm going to pull it apart today and see if I can figure out what's going on... is there a simple way to check the housing for straightness or would I have to take it somewhere?

[NotMatt]

:mad3: Screw this damn thing... I'm buying a Detroit.

I tore it completely apart, and found absolutely nothing wrong. I checked the clearances and found no issues there, but I noticed that when I put it together to measure the clearances between the spacers and the cross shaft that the driver's side coupler was a little wider than the pass. side, so I added a thin shim behind the thrust washer on the driver's side, and got it within .003" of the other side (manual says more than .008" is bad).

Put everything back together, put the carrier back in and ran another gear pattern for the hell of it and something was amiss... I had fixed an issue with the pinion bearing preload (it opened up a bit from when I originally installed it), my changes to the pinion preload changed something, so I went through the whole gear setup again basically, got the pattern right on, backlash back at .007" and buttoned it back up.

It does the same damn thing. when I get on the gas a little in 4wd in gravel and turn left, BANG it unlocks, when I'm engine braking in 4wd it bangs/lets go loudly at random, and if I'm engine braking while turning to the left, it's basically just one big bang fest... As soon as I get it bound up in a situation where I would need it (all four wheels spinning), the driver's side wheel lets go and just starts ratcheting, just like before. :mad:

Damnit this axle housing had better not be bent. 600 bucks down the tube... :(

[alwaysbrokeYJ]

My lockrite had the same thing going on, turns out my tube had broke free from the differential on one side and had some play in it. The loud bangs were the teeth stripping out. I didn't even notice they were rounded off at first then my friend pointed them out to me. Don't know if that helps or not, oh well.

[NotMatt]

Hmm... well, I removed it tonight and shimmed it as much as I could... added .005" to each side, seems to feel much better, but it still acts wierd.

That's interesting alwaysbrokeYJ... because I had to take a lot of cast material off of the driver's side when I attached the RE brackets... I didn't go past the holes that would be used for a case spreader, but I suppose it's possible that tube is loose... though it's pretty well braced by the diff bridge and the coil bucket on that side. I guess if it had just a little movement it would screw things up. Luckily this isn't my DD, so I will leave it parked until I figure out if that's the case or not (which would suck).

Has anybody successfully repaired a loose axle tube like that before? I'm just pondering what I'll do if that's the case.... I could see making sure everything is straight and just welding the tubes into the diff housing, then bracing it with a truss or something, would that be acceptable or would the housing need to be scrapped?