Outer Limits 4x4 Board

As the heading says my locker has fallen in half. i blew the crown wheel and pinion in my 80 i little while ago and only got around to pulling it down today.
Found the bolts had fallen out of the housing and that's what did the damage to everything else.
Has anyone else found this problem?

yes i have had the same problem in my front locker the whole thing was scrap metal. I have also broken rear lockers where the housings failed but ask ARB and they will tell you they have never seen it before

Were these lockers installed by ARB stores, resellers, or back-yarders?

Have only seen this in an older 4 bolt locker.

The sheared bolt heads had gone through the pinion.

cookiesmonsta wrote:As the heading says my locker has fallen in half. i blew the crown wheel and pinion in my 80 i little while ago and only got around to pulling it down today.
Found the bolts had fallen out of the housing and that's what did the damage to everything else.
Has anyone else found this problem?

I have seen this many times.

-Scott- wrote:Were these lockers installed by ARB stores, resellers, or back-yarders?

The bolts that have come loose are fitted by ARB and do not need to be undone for fitting. The bolts hold the bearing spigot on.

Bearing spigot failure on the hemisphere is also a problem.

just stay away from those chinese ebay lockers, they arent as tough as the origonal ARB. lol

This happened to a mate - he got lucky and found the loose bolt on the drain plug/magnet before it had done any damage (the rest were coming undone too).

His is an older 4-bolt model - he drilled the boltheads and wired them.

The new ARB's have locking tabs on each bolt, and more of them.

Shadow wrote:just stay away from those chinese ebay lockers, they arent as tough as the origonal ARB. lol

Who said they were the Chinese ones? If they are the same design as the old ARB items, couldn't it be fixed by fitting tabs to the 4 bolts?

think he was taking the piss, rather than being serious.

[quote="joeblow"]think he was taking the piss, rather than being serious.[/quote

Aaaah!!!! Piss taken

my lockers, rear mainly but front aswell, seem to enjoy undoing the crownwheel bolts off the locker... arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms.. 5 grand for lockers installed by arb and they are still not good enough.

chunderlicious wrote: arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms.

bogged wrote:

chunderlicious wrote: arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms.

x2

i was considering ARB lockers front and rear for my hilux but after reading this im a bit unsure

dropping a diff centre and its oil every 10,000k's is totally ridiculous.

I bet ARB dont tell you this when they sell you thier lockers. What a load of crap.

chunderlicious wrote:my lockers, rear mainly but front aswell, seem to enjoy undoing the crownwheel bolts off the locker... arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms.. 5 grand for lockers installed by arb and they are still not good enough.

Thats bullshit, its an excuse for poor workmanship.

The crownwheel bolts fitted by the factory will last basically for ever in the assembely. The reason crown wheel bolts come loose is the threads are not cleaned, degreased and washed with contact cleaner or metho, then sprayed with activator and the correct loctite.

I bet they also say its common for the bolts to come loose on your particular ratio aswell.

Jeeps wrote:

bogged wrote:

chunderlicious wrote: arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms.

x2

x boggetybazillions. Never heard of that before.

I had the bolts on my old 4bolt GQ rear locker come apart/break. Was a known issue with the early ones. As I am guessing that is why they now use 8bolts to hold it together.
Never heard of them coming aprt now though.

mine have six bolts holding the end of the locker on. the crown wheel bolts are still tight

I've had the bearing carrier on my arb lockers fail twice. First in the rear diff then about 12 months later the front went. ARB denied any responsibility. So I was up for new diff lock as well as aftermarket crown wheel/pinion etc

mortis35 wrote: i was considering ARB lockers front and rear for my hilux but after reading this im a bit unsure

Well get the really cheap ones and then you'll be able to replace them more often and will save money!

Anything will break and can break so I ask these questions, what is a stronger alternative? Is there one that does the same or better job? If airlockers are so bad why does virtually every comp truck run them without reliablity issues?

And yes I have an airlocker in the front and factory at the rear.

nzdarin wrote:

mortis35 wrote: i was considering ARB lockers front and rear for my hilux but after reading this im a bit unsure

Well get the really cheap ones and then you'll be able to replace them more often and will save money!

Anything will break and can break so I ask these questions, what is a stronger alternative? Is there one that does the same or better job? If airlockers are so bad why does virtually every comp truck run them without reliablity issues?

And yes I have an airlocker in the front and factory at the rear.

Its not the matter of now going to buy a cheap locker, alot of people after reading these threads about the ARB air locker that is considering buying one may look at other brands (TJM prolocker) or other options.

Im considering buying air lockers and allways wanted ARB ones, but after reading that people have bought them and had them installed by ARB and they still wont take responsibility for a problem when it occurs is not making me want to race out and buy there products.

chunderlicious wrote:my lockers,...seem to enjoy undoing the crownwheel bolts off the locker... arb said it is normal and they need to be checked every 10,000kms...

Hmmm..."normal" is not a very effective way to describe it.
I agree that "normally" you wouldn't worry about your ring gear bolts at all. ARB didn't design your bolts or your ring gear, so there really isn't any "ARB" involved in this issue except that locking your diff effectively doubles your traction and therefore doubles the maximum torque carried by your ring gear (and ring gear bolts). If your factory diff was marginal in this area at all then locking it (and adding bigger tyres, more horsepower, diff ratios, etc) may mean that you'll need to keep an eye on things. Adhereing to to correct ring gear torque-up procedures during set-up will put your bolts at their correct seating torque and therefore in the middle of their stretch cycle (elastic deformation). This is highly critical/benefitial to how your bolts behave and usually enough to compensate for whatever you can throw at your vehicle, but if I had a dollar for every time I have seen a fitter ignore the book specs and tighten the bolts "enough" then I would be dictating this letter to my secretary from onboard my yacht. You'll also get allot of value from a high spec'd thread lock compound like Loctite 272 (even over 262). Thread lock is not the place to save a couple cents.

-daniel
AIR LOCKER

MARKx4 wrote:

nzdarin wrote:

mortis35 wrote: i was considering ARB lockers front and rear for my hilux but after reading this im a bit unsure

Well get the really cheap ones and then you'll be able to replace them more often and will save money!

Anything will break and can break so I ask these questions, what is a stronger alternative? Is there one that does the same or better job? If airlockers are so bad why does virtually every comp truck run them without reliablity issues?

And yes I have an airlocker in the front and factory at the rear.

Its not the matter of now going to buy a cheap locker, alot of people after reading these threads about the ARB air locker that is considering buying one may look at other brands (TJM prolocker) or other options.

Im considering buying air lockers and allways wanted ARB ones, but after reading that people have bought them and had them installed by ARB and they still wont take responsibility for a problem when it occurs is not making me want to race out and buy there products.

I hear what you are saying but just because a few people have had problems doesn't mean it is a bad product. How many of these problems were caused by straight out abuse? Without knowing the truck etc how can you say that ARB even have a responsibility? Claiming it was someones fault doesn't mean it is.
ARB can not make something that is stronger than the size allows and it is acknowledged that an ARB is stronger than factory so who's to say how much longer the ARB lasted before it broke and who is to say what abuse it put up with in that time.
I'd put my money with ARB way before I put it with a TJM locker. At least the ARB has been around long enough to have this arguement happen. No one complains about a TJM locker because there are so few around! (Which doesn't prove anything either way)

nzdarin the TJM locker is a macnimurra locker and has been around for as long or close enough to the ARB.

Good fitting practice is all that is required, the old 4 bolts did have a design issue.

darin and arb.

the locker was fitted by arb, there was no threadlock on the bolts. i run 33's 4.11 diff gears a TD42 non turbo and dont drive anything that anyone with twin locks and 33s cant drive, infact i think all i drove was damp or muddy hills.

i didnt abuse the locker at all, BUT, i dont think it is arbs fault that there fitter was shit, every trade has shit tradesmen. i would buy arb lockers again, id just get my mechanic to fit them as i know hell repair things that he stuffed up.

i know i am not the only person who has had this happen i just wish arb could have told me a bit nicer or atleast how they think it should be rectified (cleaning properly and loctiting) instead of saying yeah well it happens because of the alloy casting and you need to check them every 10,000km.

thats what you get with gAyRB leaky lockers...

I RUN FRONT AND REAR AIR LOCKERS IN MY GQ AND HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. THAY WERE FITTED BY ARB.

YARNY wrote:I RUN FRONT AND REAR AIR LOCKERS IN MY GQ AND HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. THAY WERE FITTED BY ARB.

THAT'S COOL.

DO YA RECKON YOU COULD FIND YOUR CAPS LOCK BUTTON?

EVERYONE STOP SHOUTING!.....