Twheat40
New member
Hello everyone. So I don't post a lot on t4r, since I basically wheel with just tacomaworld guys, but I figured this would be a good place to do a write-up on the Powertrax 1620-LR mechanical locker in a 5th gen, since I personally have not seen one yet.
For those of you who do not know what a mechanical locker is, ie. powertrax, spartan locker, etc, it is basically a locker that locks the differential under throttle/torque and leaves it open when no throttle/torque (or just idle throttle) is applied. For more detail on that, I'd suggest doing research, because I know how it works, but is hard for me to explain without being able to show it. Basically it is a cheaper alternative to selectable lockers.
Pros:
-Don't have to switch it on
-Cheaper than ARB or e-locker
-Easy install with some mechanical ability and tools
Cons:
-Road manners are not the greatest (will cover that with more detail further down)
-Means taking turns without giving it too much throttle
-Another piece of the puzzle that can break or wear out over time
-Not ideal for daily drivers (then again, nothing I do is, so...)
Well this is made for a 8" Toyota differential... How does it work in the 8.2"??
Well, I asked this question a lot in my research. Thankfully the guys over at ECGS are amazing an answered it with this:
The internals of the carrier housing are the SAME between the 8 and the 8.2 differentials.
Now, while this did alleviate my stress with this project some, I was still nervous about blowing up my rear diff until we finished and it worked perfectly.
Now let me cover the road manners and why I would not suggest this for DD use: it is NOISY. This thing clicks around turns (when it is typically unlocked) and if it engages around a turn because you applied throttle, if the road is wet or slick, you might get a little squirrely. The click is loud and can be heard with the windows down. Oh, and it adds a little slack into the driveline due to the design of the locker. So if you hit the throttle hard, it lurches a little bit. So why did I install it? Well, because I have a sweet little Subaru for a daily and the 4R only sees road to get to trails and campsites. And I like not having to turn it on while off-roading.
Actual install:
I used this install guide from a 3rd gen 4runner because the powertrax instructions are good, but not great. Thanks to smkd13 for a great install write-up.
Lock-Right Locker Install
The major difference is the 3rd gen uses these adjuster rings:
5th gens do not. We have shims in ours (non e-lockers). We had to use a dead-blow to tap them out. I did not take a great picture of these, but you can see it sitting under the bearing sleeve on the right side of this picture.
Outside of that minor detail, we followed that write-up.
I think that is it. Thank you all for reading and I hope this answered any questions some of you may have had. If I mis-stated something or left out a detail or got something wrong, please feel free to correct me. I am not, by any stretch, experienced with this kind of stuff, but I wanted to get this out there in case somebody has the same questions I had before I started.
For those of you who do not know what a mechanical locker is, ie. powertrax, spartan locker, etc, it is basically a locker that locks the differential under throttle/torque and leaves it open when no throttle/torque (or just idle throttle) is applied. For more detail on that, I'd suggest doing research, because I know how it works, but is hard for me to explain without being able to show it. Basically it is a cheaper alternative to selectable lockers.
Pros:
-Don't have to switch it on
-Cheaper than ARB or e-locker
-Easy install with some mechanical ability and tools
Cons:
-Road manners are not the greatest (will cover that with more detail further down)
-Means taking turns without giving it too much throttle
-Another piece of the puzzle that can break or wear out over time
-Not ideal for daily drivers (then again, nothing I do is, so...)
Well this is made for a 8" Toyota differential... How does it work in the 8.2"??
Well, I asked this question a lot in my research. Thankfully the guys over at ECGS are amazing an answered it with this:
The internals of the carrier housing are the SAME between the 8 and the 8.2 differentials.
Now, while this did alleviate my stress with this project some, I was still nervous about blowing up my rear diff until we finished and it worked perfectly.
Now let me cover the road manners and why I would not suggest this for DD use: it is NOISY. This thing clicks around turns (when it is typically unlocked) and if it engages around a turn because you applied throttle, if the road is wet or slick, you might get a little squirrely. The click is loud and can be heard with the windows down. Oh, and it adds a little slack into the driveline due to the design of the locker. So if you hit the throttle hard, it lurches a little bit. So why did I install it? Well, because I have a sweet little Subaru for a daily and the 4R only sees road to get to trails and campsites. And I like not having to turn it on while off-roading.
Actual install:
I used this install guide from a 3rd gen 4runner because the powertrax instructions are good, but not great. Thanks to smkd13 for a great install write-up.
Lock-Right Locker Install
The major difference is the 3rd gen uses these adjuster rings:
5th gens do not. We have shims in ours (non e-lockers). We had to use a dead-blow to tap them out. I did not take a great picture of these, but you can see it sitting under the bearing sleeve on the right side of this picture.
Outside of that minor detail, we followed that write-up.
I think that is it. Thank you all for reading and I hope this answered any questions some of you may have had. If I mis-stated something or left out a detail or got something wrong, please feel free to correct me. I am not, by any stretch, experienced with this kind of stuff, but I wanted to get this out there in case somebody has the same questions I had before I started.
Attachments
Last edited:
