At My Wits-End With My Locker

[Tyler James Inc]

If when you try to lock the diff, you don't have voltage at the Light Green (M1) wire of the diff lock connector

Checked the light green at the ECU, and I do have voltage during the 10-second "locking" period.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

Somewhere between the rear end and the ECU, the wiring is haywire.
I can lock and unlock the diff with a 9v battery, but when I try to do the same at the ECU plug- notta. Pretty weird.
At least I [think I] know where to go from here, and I should be able to track it down [emoji1374]

 

[IBallEngineer]

However, that wasn't the problem for me.
I tried to check, but I'm not sure how to do so. The relays inside the ECU won't activate unless the actuator is plugged in. I don't want to damage/compromise the wire insulation, so I'd rather not just jam the probe through the insulation. Any ideas/recommendations are appreciated.
It does.

Under what condition? It doesn't have continuity to ground at any time, but it does have voltage for 5 seconds after the diff is "unlocked"(not that it is ever actually locked, but the ECU still operates as if it is).

If that's the case, it brings me back to wishing I knew the mechanics of the ECU, and am wondering if the contacts on a relay in the ECU is hummed up or something- aka "bad" ECU. What causes the light green/black to have continuity to ground?

It does.

You sure? What do you mean "signal from the diff lock switch"? The switch on the top of the diff? It couldn't be that, because the Green with Yellow strip has voltage when the diff is "locked". Meaning, it has voltage whenever the dash button is depressed, and keeps voltage until you "unlock" the diff.
The Green with Black stripe never has continuity to ground like you say it must have, but does have voltage during the 5-second "unlocking" time period.

Thanks for your help, and any other insight is appreciated.

Whole lot to address here, I think we can narrow it down here as soon as I get a few minutes, maybe this afternoon.

 

[Hoffie]

Just checked out the 2 YouTube videos on elocks. The bench test video with a lot less electric gizmos in the way looks very cool. I would like to see him built a kit for us, less electrical engineered people. It looks like it would only cost about $40 to do - depending on how fancy the LED light is.

Then I found Chillkats design. That is a sweet cable conversion, but too pricey at $425. I did notice that the parts can be purchased individually, though. The main thing that I would not buy is the too fancy over-engineered cable lever.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

Whole lot to address here, I think we can narrow it down here as soon as I get a few minutes, maybe this afternoon.

I really appreciate your time and effort to help. I won't be able to do any more troubleshooting till Saturday/Sunday anyway.

Just checked out the 2 YouTube videos on elocks. The bench test video with a lot less electric gizmos in the way looks very cool. I would like to see him built a kit for us, less electrical engineered people. It looks like it would only cost about $40 to do - depending on how fancy the LED light is.



Then I found Chillkats design. That is a sweet cable conversion, but too pricey at $425. I did notice that the parts can be purchased individually, though. The main thing that I would not buy is the too fancy over-engineered cable lever.

I'm just so thrown off as to what's going on. No rust here, no harsh environment at all, no recent or major modifications that affect the wiring, no off-road trails that would cause over-droop pulling on wires, or sticks to catch the wiring.
Man, isn't Chilkat's design badass?! I like it quite a bit, and think the price is reasonable for what it is. Small shop, Made In USA etc. That said, I am also not fond of the excessive control lever. Might be great for a buggy, but not for a soccer mom rig [emoji6]
I wouldn't mind a simple little t-handle under the seat or something. If their lever would fit between the seat and console, it might not be so bad. It sucks you have to source the gear though. Might be able to almost pay for a manual setup for what I could sell my working actuator for [emoji23] I'm sure selling it without the gear might be a little harder.

 

[IBallEngineer]

Somewhere between the rear end and the ECU, the wiring is haywire.
I can lock and unlock the diff with a 9v battery, but when I try to do the same at the ECU plug- notta. Pretty weird.
At least I [think I] know where to go from here, and I should be able to track it down [emoji1374]

When you say you can work it with a 9V battery, where exactly are you connecting your battery? What wires and what connector?

 

[Tyler James Inc]

When you say you can work it with a 9V battery, where exactly are you connecting your battery? What wires and what connector?

The Light Green/Red and the Light Green; the conductors that go directly to the motor brushes. And at the connector closest to the motor/actuator.

 

[IBallEngineer]

The Light Green/Red and the Light Green; the conductors that go directly to the motor brushes. And at the connector closest to the motor/actuator.

So if you go back to the Diff lock ECU and use the 9V set up at that connector it doesn't work?

 

[Tyler James Inc]

So if you go back to the Diff lock ECU and use the 9V set up at that connector it doesn't work?

Exactly. That's why I came to the conclusion it must be my wiring- between the ECU and actuator.

 

[IBallEngineer]

Exactly. That's why I came to the conclusion it must be my wiring- between the ECU and actuator.

I'm sorry, I'm answering you but also entertaining family, if the other two circuits

Light Green with Black
Light Green with Yellow

are both good you would be correct. Do you have an Ohmeter and some jumpers to check? Follow the wires to the connectors. Specifically B01,IE2, BN1, and BN2.

IE2 40 COWL WIRE AND FLOOR NO.2 WIRE (LEFT KICK PANEL)
II2
40 ENGINE WIRE AND COWL WIRE (ON THE GLOVE BOX)
II3
BN1
42 FRAME WIRE AND FLOOR NO.2 WIRE (UNDER THE LEFT SIDE OF REAR SEAT CUSHION)
BN2
BO1 42 FRAME WIRE AND REAR DIFFERENTIAL WIRE (UPPER THE REAR AXLE HOUSING LEFT)

 

[Hoffie]

A t-handle coming up through the center console just in front of the park brake would be cool. That way the locker cable could just follow the park brake cable all the way up and not look out of the way.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

My troubleshooting has concluded, and the results are- to be honest- disturbing.
"Disturbing? Little extreme there Tyler- don't you think?"
Well, you tell me.
For the 4th time since beginning to troubleshoot my locker, back up on jack stands she goes. Tires hanging for easy locker engagement verification.
With my little test setup, I- once again- confirmed I could lock and unlock the diff with a 9v-

Verified[emoji1360] So I moved to the next connector. First, I took the whole harness out-

Then tested from the next connector down-

No workie. [emoji58][emoji848] So I unwrapped the harness, pulled the vent/breather tube off, and tested continuity. Light Green/Red had continuity, and Light Green did not. I don't get it, but I tested it a good 10 times. Wire is tight in the terminal on both ends, and no damage to the insulation at all.
So- apparently- I need a new one of these-

 

[Mark_BC]

LOL I kept looking in this thread to see if this was finally the SOLVED post. Simple fix I guess.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

LOL I kept looking in this thread to see if this was finally the SOLVED post. Simple fix I guess.

Welp, here's the post you were waiting for! [emoji1373]
REALLY wanted my locker working, so I wanted to do whatever I needed to to get it fixed. I stripped back some insulation on both ends of the thick rubber sheathing, to see if the break was under the sheathing, or at one of the connectors/terminals/crimps-

To my surprise, there was no continuity between the test points under the sheathing; the issue was not at either connector/terminal.
So I took a wire from my sunroof control swap wiring, de-pinned the female end, added the waterproof boot, and soldered the other end-

https://youtu.be/VCohjQx3664

 

[Hoffie]

So, that fixed it? Finally, eh?

I think that once mine decides to go out I will be doing the cable conversion. Electric is cool, like air, but you can never trust them to work every time. Don't you just love it when the ARB guys show up and all you hear a hissing due to an air leak. :biggrin1:

 

[hounddogman]

So, that fixed it? Finally, eh?

I think that once mine decides to go out I will be doing the cable conversion. Electric is cool, like air, but you can never trust them to work every time. Don't you just love it when the ARB guys show up and all you hear a hissing due to an air leak. :biggrin1:

Hey now ! Don't be picking on us ARB guys . At least a hissing air line doesn't take a week to diagnose and repair . :yo: Tyler , at least it was a cheap fix .

 

[Mark_BC]

So, that fixed it? Finally, eh?

I think that once mine decides to go out I will be doing the cable conversion. Electric is cool, like air, but you can never trust them to work every time. Don't you just love it when the ARB guys show up and all you hear a hissing due to an air leak. :biggrin1:

Yeah, mine stuck on once. I was driving around town and down the freeway for 2 weeks with a locked diff. :shocked: :jaw: :wow: :wow2:
Turns out is was just a corroded wiring connection at the harness and jiggling it fixed the issue. But I like this mechanical actuator idea.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

So, that fixed it? Finally, eh?



I think that once mine decides to go out I will be doing the cable conversion. Electric is cool, like air, but you can never trust them to work every time. Don't you just love it when the ARB guys show up and all you hear a hissing due to an air leak. :biggrin1:

Yeah; finally is right! I really like air and electric too, so it would be hard to go to a manual setup. That being said, Chilkat's beautifully made actuator might be enough to convince me that the "cool factor" of air and electric isn't worth the potential problems! Haha I think they should machine a nice dial instead of the bulky shift lever. It's so extreme, and I think a push-and-turn knob- that locks in either position- would be super nice and clean. Might up the price to a ridiculous number, but hey, if it's cool enough, people will buy it! [emoji41]

Hey now ! Don't be picking on us ARB guys . At least a hissing air line doesn't take a week to diagnose and repair . :yo: Tyler , at least it was a cheap fix .

Haha man, you got that right!

Yeah, mine stuck on once. I was driving around town and down the freeway for 2 weeks with a locked diff. :shocked: :jaw: :wow: :wow2:

Turns out is was just a corroded wiring connection at the harness and jiggling it fixed the issue. But I like this mechanical actuator idea.

Hahaha #Welded240LyfeBrah [emoji23]

 

[IBallEngineer]

Welp, here's the post you were waiting for! [emoji1373]
REALLY wanted my locker working, so I wanted to do whatever I needed to to get it fixed. I stripped back some insulation on both ends of the thick rubber sheathing, to see if the break was under the sheathing, or at one of the connectors/terminals/crimps-

To my surprise, there was no continuity between the test points under the sheathing; the issue was not at either connector/terminal.
So I took a wire from my sunroof control swap wiring, de-pinned the female end, added the waterproof boot, and soldered the other end-

https://youtu.be/VCohjQx3664

So Tyler I have to share something with you. Of course I'm very glad you found the failure, I hope you found my advice helpful. I find tremendous reward in solving this sort of thing be it for myself or for others. Before looking at your post I had never looked at the Elocker system and I had no idea how it worked. As we started I kept hoping El Durko ( [MENTION=10169]TheDurk[/MENTION] ) would jump in and rescue us, but he's probably digging out of December's snow living over on the Rust Coast. Anyway I feel like I learned the system in this thread, now I'll be fully confident to help if someone else has a problem.

As for the concept of changing to mechanical I just Pffft. I've used ARB's in my LandCruiser since 96 with awesome reliability. I did break a tooth off a spider gear once, but it jambed and turned itself into a spool so I was able to wheel out of the trail and chirp my way home. Leaking airlines are an easy trail fix, and really I feel the same about elockers. I would love to have them on my 3rd gen.

:cheers:

 

[Nate_GB]

Hey now ! Don't be picking on us ARB guys . At least a hissing air line doesn't take a week to diagnose and repair . :yo: Tyler , at least it was a cheap fix .

Not so sure I would say this. I've had to ship my new diff with ARB locker back to ECGS twice now for an air leak that I can't seem to track down and only leaks when the truck gets wheeled.

Glad this thread had a simple conclusion. I love working through these kinds of problems and seeing how others work through them!