E Locker Trouble

[bike]

My E-lcoker in my 97 isn't unlocking. Currently have the rear of the truck jacked up and although the button is not engaged the diff is still locked. Have cycled the motor a good 30 times and nothing. I can hear it clicking and the motor working and no fuses are out. When I try to engage it just flashes likes it's still attempting to lock. Any pics or guides on how to manually disengage?
Thanks

*I tried a search and all the links were dead*

 

[TFJ-4runner]

I had trouble with mine when I first bought it trying to get it to engage. You would hear it but it never fully would until they day I went out on some trails. I figured the bumps I was going over while trying to wake it up must of unseized the never used before locker.

How often have you used it? I know there is a writeup about disassembling and troubleshooting. I'll try and find it again.

 

[bike]

Used it quite a bit last trail run (9th of Jan) and don't recall having any troubles with it. Roads were snowy driving home but I'm pretty sure it was unlocked at the time. Then used it again a week or so in a parking lot for a bit Again, snowy roads but seemed fine. Haven't used the truck much since.

I did sit parked in a river stuck between ice shelves on either side for a bit... do have breathers extended but can't imagine that helped anything. I had this happen before, but I was able to unlock by jacking the rear and spinning the tires by hand.

 

[TFJ-4runner]

You I know what you mean about the snowy parking lot lol.
YouTube - Lifted 4Runner playing in the snow

Sounds linke you may need to go in and check things out. Heres the link I was talking about and a bonus one as well.

E-locker Fix - TTORA Forum
E-locker actuator rebuild - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

GL

 

[bike]

Well I took off the cover and all the bolts, tried to remove the motor but found it was stuck. Soaked it in some penetrating oil and got distracted by my rear sway bar. Came back, tapped it with a hammer - still stuck. Tried cycling the motor a few times and voila it disengaged :shrug: I'll take it as a victory and keep watching it.

Thanks for the links, I did a little more searching just before I checked this thread again and found the same ones. One more for the bookmarks

 

[Singtoe]

Well I took off the cover and all the bolts, tried to remove the motor but found it was stuck. Soaked it in some penetrating oil and got distracted by my rear sway bar. Came back, tapped it with a hammer - still stuck. Tried cycling the motor a few times and voila it disengaged :shrug: I'll take it as a victory and keep watching it.

Thanks for the links, I did a little more searching just before I checked this thread again and found the same ones. One more for the bookmarks

Now You should use you diff lock frequently to exercise it. I do it at drive through while i am waiting in line. I can hear it engage and dis-engage. Same goes for the AWD button on the transfer case shifter. Once in a while, you can drive on the side of the highway and engage the 4wd and the diff lock, then disengage and pop back on to the highway.

 

[bike]

It normally gets used at least once a week since I've had the truck, and a couple times a day since we've had a good snowpack on the side streets I was parked outside tonight for the first time for a couple hours, and after de-icing my rear wheels with a heat gun today my passenger rear wheel completely froze solid. Used 4-lo to drive out of the parking spot and still was dragging rear wheel. Luckily the locker worked and broke the ice free, was even more happy when it disengaged after

 

[Avarice]

It normally gets used at least once a week since I've had the truck, and a couple times a day since we've had a good snowpack on the side streets I was parked outside tonight for the first time for a couple hours, and after de-icing my rear wheels with a heat gun today my passenger rear wheel completely froze solid. Used 4-lo to drive out of the parking spot and still was dragging rear wheel. Luckily the locker worked and broke the ice free, was even more happy when it disengaged after

I hear that, the only way I got my Runner moving more than a few times when my rear brake locked was to throw the e-locker on. If I didn't have it, I'd have been stuck in some pretty crummy situations.

 

[bike]

Finally fixed my issue. Here's a copy/paste of my fix from CT4WD where I originally posted it:

So after many months of a semi working locker, which normally led to crawling under a very low truck covered in mud/ice/snow/mud/misery to play around with it I finally decided to fix it. Managed to pull it off, something that I had tried and failed before, and open it up to try and diagnose.

I was sure the motor was still working, as I could hear and feel the worm drive inside spinning. I pulled the motor, and with one wheel in the air manually slid the locking slide thing (no idea of name) inside the diff and was able to lock and unlock the diff. I opened the motor to take a look and saw that everything was nice and clean, but a good amount of grease had made its way onto the contacts so I cleaned them up and bolted it back up to see if somehow the grease and newly cleaned up contacts were the problem. They weren't. Unbolted and removed the motor again. Still unsure of what the problem was, I tried plugging in the hanging motor and hit the diff lock button to watch to see what would happen. The motor shook a little and made some noise but the gear that moves the slide to lock the diff didn't turn. I removed the cover off the motor again and tried to manually turn the gear by hand. With way more force than what I was expecting it finally turned and I got the just of how it worked. Turns out the axle that the gear is on was binding up where it came through the case and goes into the diff. I cleaned it up, put some fresh grease on it and bolted it back up. All is working quite nicely and exactly as expected. I'm very much looking forward to being able to lock up at the trail, and unlock for the drive home and those slippery downhills.

Here's some pics I found to somewhat explain.

Motor removed with the gear that slides the thing inside the diff (mine thankfully didn't have a gaping hole)

Contacts that were slightly pitted and covered in grease

Axle that was binding up causing the problem. Just left of the O-ring is where it rotates in the cover and was causing the problem. That little gear is mounted just to the left of that.