I’m struggling to free the locker motor but am afraid to force it much more. All of the retaining nuts & bolts are out and I have been hosing it down with PB Blaster and tapping and prying, but it is stuck in the state you can see in the pics below. I read that you should tap it from both sides but I don’t get that as only one side is accessible. I’ve also read that it can be that the o rings can seize in place... but what do I do about that?

Any advise (especially if based on experience with a similar situation) would be appreciated.

Background info:
My rear locker engages fine but doesn’t disengage unless I jack up the rear, loosen its bolts,
and tap it with a hammer. Could this inability to disengage properly be related to whatever is keeping it from coming off of the housing?







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It looks like you have it almost out. It’s holding up on a o-ring. Put a flat head and work it around carefully while trying to pull on it. Make sure you have all 3 bolts removed and harness disconnected.

When you put the actuator back. You must manually lock your axle and lock the motor electronically. Then put it back together. This clocks the motor correctly. Inside the axle housing there will be a gear. Jack up the rear. And use a screw driver to lock it. You’ll know when it’s locked because both wheels will start to spin. If it’s unlocked only one will.

I had the EXACT problem. Even came on here and posted the problem. Heat up the long studs. Clean off the threaded ends with a wire brush. Keep heating to break the aluminum to steel bond. Press the motor back into place and spray your rust penetrate on the stud then raise it up again (carefully, I remember breaking the aluminum a little) Keep working the motor up and down while spraying the penetrate. I think I used cold chisels on both sides. The heat might be all you need though.

Please update this thread when you figure it all out, I’ll be pulling my actuator soon too and have no idea how that process will go yet.


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So I got it off today. I believe that the primary issue in removing it was that the stud on the top of the unit was frozen into the top hole in the actuator motor. I soaked the whole thing with PB Blaster for a couple of days and sprayed as much as I could up into the gap that I had established as of yesterday. I did try to apply heat today but the location of that top stud made it difficult to access well. In the end the actuator finally broke free but it left the part of its mounting plate on that upper stud and the plate also broke off around the motor post (so I’m really glad that I had bought a replacement unit on eBay before starting the removal). These things seem to be made out of pig iron.



Anyway I got the old one out, completely smeared the mounting surface, studs and all mounting hardware with zinc anti-seize, and mounted the new one up and it works flawlessly.

I took the old one apart once I had it out and it is still a mystery to me as to why it wasn’t working properly. As you can see... no internal corrosion or stripped gears. Not a ton of grease but enough. The motor turned when engaged... it just did not seem to be able to disengage.




I can think of 3 possibilities at this point.
1- I don’t know if I broke the center plate when trying to remove the unit or if it might have already been broken or even just fractured prior to removal. 2- maybe the motor was turning into the engaged position strongly but had weakened in the reverse direction (as I understand it an electromagnet engages and the spring disengages the unit so maybe the spring got weak over time?)
3- I am far from the first owner and it has over 150k on it so who knows if somebody has had this off before? Perhaps the lever that the motor interacts with inside the 3rd member wasn’t clocked entirely properly?

#2 above seems like the most likely candidate to me.

So...having just done this I’d recommend the following:
Pre purchase a replacement unit or be ready to leave the 4runner on jack stands for a while if the pig iron motor mounting plate starts to disintegrate on removal.
2. PB Plaster & heat (thanks jrzee2000) for removal and zinc anti seize for reassembly.
3. Remember when reassembling to put both the motor and the lever inside your diff into the locked position (thanks kolelt)

Oh and do the grey (blue & red) wire mod before you start. It makes testing things out as you work dramatically simpler and now it’ll be easy to periodically activate the locker and keep it from freezing up again. I plan to do so weekly.


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Good stuff. The grey wire mod tip at the end is important for me because I was just thinking “how the hell am I going to constantly test, engage/disengage this thing”. I read in another write up that you can use a 12v battery and wire up some leads to do it all manually, but I think I’ll go the grey wire route.

On having the replacement on hand - is it possible to drive if the original actuator crumbles apart or are you basically screwed? I guess I’ll have to be super delicate and err on the side of caution.


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I did a couple days of work / testing before I did the grey wire mod ( named for the wire that is grey on a Tacoma but it is the blue/ red wire on our 4runners) but it was a PITA constantly shifting through to 4wd low etc. the mod took minutes and was so worth it.

I’m guessing you could drive (wondered the same myself when I had the old one off and was just tired) but you would have an opening into your diff that junk could get in through - that would worry me.


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