Sinking Creek 4WD Association

I've got a couple questions for those running Aussie Lockers, especially in the front diff.

First, I have heard if you break a shaft it pretty much pops a side pin in the locker every time, is this true?

Second, when power is not being applied to the unit does it unlock like its supposed to? Mostly what I'm wondering about is in 2wd with the hubs locked on the trail, will it stay unlocked like it should?

I might have some more questions forthcoming, but that's it for now.

Thanks.

mine unlocks till you get on the gas. Soon as it gets power it locks up. Mine is in the rear.

Stinson wrote:mine unlocks till you get on the gas. Soon as it gets power it locks up. Mine is in the rear.

X2. Have not broken a shaft with it so can't help in that dept.

Mine is in the front and seems to unlock easily in 2wd. It also makes shifting out of 4wd pretty hard at times I have to get it rolling a little first and saw the wheels side to side. I got it from Clay who did not have any trouble out of it till he broke a shaft and the pins popped. 10$ or 15$ in parts and its been working fine for me since. Seems that a lot of lockers have this problem.

Sounds good. Replacing a set of $10-15 pins when I break a shaft doesn't bother me, its pulling the whole front axle apart to get the locker out to repair it that does. I assume this would be the case, i.e. no way to install the new pins with it in the chunk?

You half to pull cross shaft which usually means pulling the ring gear so it will slide out.

The locker I sold to Adam was one of the first production runs for toy axles.

When I spoke to Bill at aussie locker, he said mine was the first breakage he had heard of. He sent me a new set of pins and springs for free, and I sent the sheared pins back so he could take them to his metallurgist. I contacted him a little later to say thanks for his help, and he told me they looked at the pins and tweaked the material a little bit for the later production runs. One of the selling points of the Aussie is they're not designed to shear the pins as a failure mode. Not sure how much I believe that, tho...

I had already decided to move up to an ARB when I removed the Aussie, but Adam is correct. In order to replace the pins, you need to remove the locker entirely... which means pulling the cross shaft, which means re-setting up your r&p. Not a huge pain, but each time you fool around in there, you run the risk of making a mistake and trashing a set of gears, and/or your carrier, etc. (ahem... TURBO... ahem...)

These failures are pretty common to lunchbox lockers (and Detroits, for that matter). You pop and shaft, you've likely mangled the locker. If the pins fail, they will likely gall or enlarge the pin seats. The locker will have more play, be sloppier, and will be more difficult to disengage if the pin seats are messed up. This is one reason why I decided to go to an ARB up front... it ends up just being a pain to deal with... a $15 part could end up trashing much more expensive parts.

an advantage of the dana diffs is that they use shims to set the diffs up. if you pull the carrier, there is nothing to set back up. just pops in and out. so, pull the shafts, take off the bearing caps, take off ring gear, pull pin, make repairs, install pin, install ring gear, replace carrier into housing, install and torque caps, shafts, add fluid..... no biggy.

TerryD wrote:an advantage of the dana diffs is that they use shims to set the diffs up. if you pull the carrier, there is nothing to set back up. just pops in and out. so, pull the shafts, take off the bearing caps, take off ring gear, pull pin, make repairs, install pin, install ring gear, replace carrier into housing, install and torque caps, shafts, add fluid..... no biggy.

That's kinda what i meant by "potentially making a mistake" any time you've pulled apart the r&p... If it were me, I'd double check the backlash, run some marking compound and check the pattern, regardless of whether I knew I had the gears properly setup prior to pulling the carrier.

[quote="yotacowboy"]Not a huge pain, but each time you fool around in there, you run the risk of making a mistake and trashing a set of gears, and/or your carrier, etc. (ahem... TURBO... ahem...)

quote]

Thanks for all the info. I think I'm going to order one and try it out, if it doesn't work out there a D44 Aussie locker should be pretty easy to sell.

good call. i think you'll like it.

I think you'll wish you got an ARB

Steinberg wrote:I think you'll wish you got an ARB

it took me all day saturday to convince him to put a locker in it....... dont ruin it making him think twice......

Steinberg wrote:I think you'll wish you got an ARB

I know an ARB is what I ultimately want, but $250 vs $750 is what made my mind up. Do you regret having a Detroit over an ARB?