Finished wiring up my elocker swap, and of course it doesn't want to engage. Wiring is good, checked continuity.

I ended up buying another actuator at the junkyard. Plugged it into the connector in the back to test it out before installing, and it basically just bumped for a second but didn't fully turn. New one must be seized as well...

Bench tested and confirmed no movement. So i decided to tear into it.

The inside looks great. No corrosion or anything on the inside that looks worrisome. Only difference from writeups, I didn't have a ball-bearing at the top and bottom of the armature. Is this common?

I've taken it apart and put it back together at least ten times now and still can't get the thing to move doing a bench test. Here are some pics: anything look out of the ordinary?

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clean out all the old yellow grease. Lightly clean the electrical tracks that the grease covered. Lightly clean the 3 contacts that ride on the tracks. test. if it works then put in new moly grease and reinstall.

Thanks for the reply, I have tried cleaning the contacts but I still can't get it to move. I am only testing the commutator at this point. I can turn it freely by hand before putting the stater cover on, but I can't get it to move with electricity. Magnets are all in place as they should.

I found another actuator from the junkyard. Plugged it in and it turned about 1/4 to 1/2 a turn before seizing. I can provide a video of it if anyone is interesting in seeing it lol...After it seized up I couldn't get it to move again.

Dissected it and I found that the armature was actually bent, and the magnets were out of place and unglued from the motor cap.

Figured no big deal, I can combine parts from the other actuator I have and make a working one. Turns out these actuators have many minor differences...

The teeth on the armature and main gears are different pitches, they have different contact sizes, there is a bearing on one of the cases, differences in case moldings, and so on. Had no idea Toyota made different actuators for these things. First one was pulled from a 99, the bent one was from a 97 I believe.

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still no luck??? odd that there is at least 2 different style (models) of the actuator. I didnt know that. I mentioned earlier about cleaning the old yellow grease of the units. every pic of yours still has it on. When I did mine out of desperation when nothing I did helped it to spin i cleaned ALL the yellow grease and it worked. coincidence?? I dont know but everything else on mine stayed the same and after cleaning the yellow crap out it worked fine and has continued to work. That shaft can be straightened but do it carefully. keep posting results
good luck
dave

Damn lucky to find that many elockers in the junkyard! 2nd is, make sure you are using a grease that isn't conductive. I don't know if moly lube is but I think it has graphite in it which is conductive. Have you ohmmed out the windings to see if there is a short? You can use a eraser to clean up the contacts as well.

Worse case is purchase a new actuator. And or double check the wiring truck side too.

Edit - how are the brushes? Most I've seen are shot/cracked/worn out.

moly is NOT conductive
also if the one with the bent shaft is the one that turned a little then I would straighten the shaft and see how far it turns.
I laughed at 2TH4IST comment about lucky enough to find that many lockers in junk yard. I thought the same thing when I read your comment. NONE within 100 miles of where I live.

I didn't clean the contact grease on the main gear, because I wanted test the motor first. There is a thread somewhere that explains which wires to jump and provide power to. The contacts on the main gear were also being jumped.

I didn't even try to bench test the one with the bent armature since it didn't want to turn freely by hand. What would be a good way to straight straighten it without damaging?

Yes, very lucky to find two actuators. However both a broken lol and were a major pia to remove from the donors.... So far I checked all my new wiring in the truck, wiring at actuator, windings on the armature, etc. On the first one, everything appears to be good. The brushes look good too, but I haven't cleaned them up with sandpaper or anything yet.

I will try cleaning off all the grease, to see if that works. But I doubt it since I was jumping the contacts on the gear side anyway. I do still have the actuator that came with my axle. Was hoping to get one of these junkyard actuators working though so I could just swap it right in.

I would straighten by hand. Put one end in a vise (wrap protection around surface that contacts vise) and apply side pressure with hand/thumb etc. then put armature end in drill to check runout. Probably have to do it several times to get it perfect.

any chance to don't have the teeth inside the diff 4 the locker in the correct alignment and the actuator is turning as its suppose to until it hit hard resistance and bending... don't know if the motor in the actuator is strong enough to bent the shaft or not, but just a thought