E-Locker Retro-Fit
So what's up with that elocker install buddy it's been a while....
I guess I could provide a little update. Got hooked up with an E-Locker'd 3rd member from an FJC by an awesome buddy of mine. A big thanks goes out to [MENTION=65653]aha2988[/MENTION] for everything you've done! You are the freaking man. Also special thanks to the Bobby's for lending a big hand in this job!
The reason we came up on this piece is because it had a bad pinion bearing and was replaced under warranty at the dealer. They were going to scrap the part and we rescued it. Talked to Chase at East Coast Gear Supply and he suggested a
master install kit to rebuild the diff since we really didn't know what it had been through as well as a
solid pinion spacer to make sure that problem doesn't occur again. Also ordered a couple
switches from OTR the switch guys.
I'll start by saying that this ended up being a pretty big job in my opinion and I grossly underestimated the amount of work that would go into making this work. This is easily the most complicated mod that I've done to the truck to date. We started Saturday (8/24) morning and allotted about 7-8 hours for the job.
We started with the diff rebuild. I had no experience rebuilding diffs and Austin only had experience replacing diffs, not rebuilding them, so it was a case of the blind leading the blind, but it was also a good learning experience. Fortunately my partner whose shop we were doing the work in knows diffs like the back of his hand, and was there to lend a hand and advice in between tuning cars. First we replaced the pinion bearings and races and set pinion bearing preload by using the old pinion spacer as reference for the solid set up. This step required a whole lot of assembly and disassembly (pressing in and out) in order to set up properly. *An item of note: There was a thin metal collar stacked in the assembly that was sacrificed when hammering out one of the old pinion bearing races and my rebuild kit did not include this part. I'm still not quite positive what it was, an oil slinger maybe. Anyway, after looking at it, talking to some folks and doing a little research, it looked like it'd be okay to run without it, so we proceeded. Next was assembling the carrier assembly with new bearing and races. *Item of note #2, my kit came with same size bearings for a standard Toyota V6 diff instead of the larger bearing for the e-locker. We opted to re-use this bearing, but if you are ordering a rebuild kit for an e-lockered diff, make sure that they include the larger bearing. Re-assembled the rebuilt carrier assembly. Set carrier bearing pre-load. Checked backlash:
Checked gear tooth pattern (I know it looks deep in this picture, but it wasn't):
After about 7 hours of work (1 hour lunch break), we finally had this thing finished. At this juncture, I was at a cross-roads. Do I press on to stage 2 of the build which is the irreversible point of no return? We had already spent an entire day just rebuilding the diff. I had taken up Austin's whole day as well as my partners time, not to mention having my truck sitting on one of his lifts the entire day without really touching it. With a little bit of encouragement, we decided to pressed on. A couple hours into it, we had to call it a day. For those that don't know what is required for this retro-fit, it requires removing 3 studs from the axle housing and drilling and tapping for 4 new studs, 2 short and 2 long. Also it requires notching the housing to clear the shift fork for the locker. We managed to get as far as the notch on the first day.
Housing drained with stock 3rd member removed in prepped for modification:
As I mentioned, we opted to do this on a lift since we had access to one. Many opt to pull the entire axle to do this procedure and in retrospect, I would probably recommend that approach:
Using the e-locker gasket to mark for studs and notch:
Austin going to work on the notch:
The next day I return to drill and tap. This was a PITA with the tools we had and with the axle on the truck. Drill bits sucked. It's essential that you put the studs in perfectly straight if you want this thing to plug in properly. Here is where things started to go down hill for me. We hung the new diff in place to mark the locations with a center punch. Then we created a drill jig on the drill press with a piece of plate steel. If you have some tubing or bar stock that is the right I.D. for your drill bit, you can weld it to the plate for a good drill guide... I didn't. After messing with the drilling I began to get impatient and careless. Just wanted to get finished. I started to drill the holes free hand. *An item of note here: You can not have the long studs threaded in place prior to hanging the 3rd because the gas tank gets in the way. Anyway, I only managed to get 3 of the 4 studs put in (pretty got IMO for free hand). The 4th was just beginning to catch. As a temporary solution, I just plugged the last hole in the interest of getting it together and getting it out of there where I could live to fight another day. Threw everything back together:
After taking it for a shakedown, everything was running very smooth. New bearing and new diff fluid (my old fluid had over 170K miles on it). But when I got back to the shop, I had discovered that it was leaking fluid. Discouraged and mad, I limped it home. So basically, I had the hard part done, we just needed to fix a leak.
Drove it to Austin's shop the following Friday and pulled it back apart. We cleaned the mating faces thoroughly. Knocked down a high spot on the axle housing that's caused by the plating on the axle housing meeting with the cast boss on the 3rd member that the locker motor mounts to (this is around 1 o'clock when staring into the axle cavity). We ended up opening some holes on the 3rd member to get that last stud in place. Should have done that from the beginning.
Austin cleaning up the axle:
Got it buttoned back up and so far it appears to be leak free, but I'm having to keep an eye on it. There is so much oil that was slung into the underbody, it's hard to tell what is new and what is residual. I've cleaned it up with some degreaser and dish detergent.
All of this, and it's
still not functional yet. I've still got to wire the thing. I've spent a lot of time reading some retrofit write-ups. Looks very straight forward for 3rd Gens, as some are prewired for lockers and even have the dash indicator light. I've read wiring diagrams with them wired to a DPDT switch and some with them wired to SPDT switch with relays and frankly, staring at wiring diagrams makes my eyes go crossed. Always has. I'm a mechanical engineer, and electrical stuff just isn't my thing. And while I do sit between 2 brilliant EE's that answer all my questions and could figure it out for me in a heart beat, I decided to go a different route. After reading a 120 thread where a member did the retro-fit and recommended using
Offroad Solutions for a wiring harness, I opted for that. I tend to be a plug and play kind of guy when I can.
So lessons learned from this:
- If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably just buy a fully built 3rd from ECGS with an ARB and call it a day.
- If I hadn't gotten the 3rd for free, I don't feel it would have been worth the time, money, and effort to make this work. Even with getting it for free, I'm on the fence, lol.
- If you don't have to rebuild the 3rd, it may be worth it. But on the flip side to that, I really enjoyed learning how to work on them. Though I would not recommend undertaking this level of task, if you are not mechanically apt to do so or have the guidance of somebody with experience as well as the tools to do the job properly.
Overall, I'll chalk it up to a great learning experience, with a fare share of choice words and frustrations thrown in for good measure. If you're still with me, thanks for reading. Check back for updates on this.
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