Changing leaky air locker seal(s) in Vitara 5.11 diff

[raqmup]

Posted this in tech, but need all the answers/advice I can get atm.

Doing my front locker seals today and am a lil' stuck on what seals I need as the locker is leaking air into the diff housing. It's not engaging the front locker, i.e. compressor keeps cycling every 20 secs when I hit the fr locker button and diff housing pressurises while I hold my thumb over the breather.
Long story short, is there a need to go genuine arb seals or are they an 'o' ring style seal that I can get from a bearing shop or ripco?
If they're generic, does anyone know what size they are? I'd guess it's just the one on the inlet rather than the piston seal- as they've hardly been given a hard time or used much. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[dank]

Hey mate I'm having exactly the same issues with my front locker. I only bought it about 3 months ago and myself and bigcam cannot for the life of us get it to seal properly once its in the diff housing. We've pulled it out a few times now and checked and rechecked everything and bench tested it for over two hours and not one leak. We then put it back into the housing and it will work fine the first few times and then slowly slowly it get worse and worse until the compressor is pretty much running flat out.

This is happening without even driving the thing. THe new lockers had a square edged o-ring in them and I think either we are tightening up the locker housing too tight and its squeezing the oring too much out of shape and causing it to leak or they just suck outright.

We are trying to source some round orings to see if that will fix the job. Cams wife is having some luck through her work I'll let you know how I go.

[dank]

I'd guess it's just the one on the inlet rather than the piston seal- as they've hardly been given a hard time or used much. Thanks in advance for any advice.

On mine i'm pretty sure its not the inlet, but the piston seal. I can here it bubbling through the oil and we made sure it was a tight seal. I think the action on the piston is causing something like the seal to move and leak under pressure when applied a number of times....its bloody annoying. It sounds like it might be a manufacturing fault...

[raqmup]

Cheers for that dank, I did have it working the first few times out and after a bit of a bath treatment in toolangi, the water/mud must've affected it even after changing the diff oil- as I hadn't put breather extensions on at that point, doh! Let me know what works for ya mate as I reckon I've got buckleys of doing it today after what I've read I'll need- viton 'o' ring seals for the bearing seals etc...
Might just be worth the extra bucks to get the proper arb ones this week and do it next w/e.

[OVERKILL ENG]

Hey mate I'm having exactly the same issues with my front locker. I only bought it about 3 months ago and myself and bigcam cannot for the life of us get it to seal properly once its in the diff housing. We've pulled it out a few times now and checked and rechecked everything and bench tested it for over two hours and not one leak. We then put it back into the housing and it will work fine the first few times and then slowly slowly it get worse and worse until the compressor is pretty much running flat out.

This is happening without even driving the thing. THe new lockers had a square edged o-ring in them and I think either we are tightening up the locker housing too tight and its squeezing the oring too much out of shape and causing it to leak or they just suck outright.

We are trying to source some round orings to see if that will fix the job. Cams wife is having some luck through her work I'll let you know how I go.

Be very carefull that when you have put it into the housing that the copper line is not pushing against the haousing as this will put pressure on the sealing ring and push it sideways a little causing it to leak. I am assuming it has the clip type of end cap.

SAM

[raqmup]

Haven't pulled it out yet Sam, just was anticipating trying to do it today- that isn't gonna happen at this stage in the day
I'll check that suggestion out when we do get onto it next weekend or one night this week about the copper line touching the housing. It was put in about three 'n a bit years ago, but the zooks hardly been used or abused since then. May be half a dozen outings plus some A-B driving...

[alien]

i dont know much about air lockers, but i'm a paintball player and a gun-tech for it - so i know a little about pneumatics....

if there's o-rings anywhere inside that mechanism, REPLACE THEM! even a slightly worn o-ring can cause issues, and often you cant tell its worn. I dont know if the manufacturers recommend it either, but get your hands on some DOW-55 o-ring grease - it has a compound in it that swells the o-ring just slightly allowing a better seal. Should be able to get it from a store like Blackwoods.

edit: DOW-55 is also known as Molycote-55 in australia.

[raqmup]

Thanks alien, what I've decided to do, for now, is on the advice of a few wiser than I, remove the center by myself to cut down the labour charge by about 2/3'rds and get someone who knows what they're doing with diffs to fix it. I figure this is the best way for now, as if there is anything else wrong or out of whack- they should pick up what my untrained eye may miss- even if it's something quite normal to them, it may seem foreign to me.
If there's more adivice on pulling the center out, I'd love to hear it, as I'm planning on doing that this weekend coming.

Mike

[suzimad]

ive had a few few issues with the arb air locker , firstly the clip that holds the locking ring in , in some instances it doesnt allow any play and kicks the ring ever so slightly so the o ring doesnt seal , when the diff is out , make sure that if you turn the crown wheel one way or another that you can see that the sealing ring is allowed to "move" its pretty hard to explain , but ive had issues with the clips that retain the sealing ring , with a little bending so that it allows some "free play" there isnt an issue.