Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Drained the oil out of my rear diff and found a small piece of steel that looked like the end of a dowel.. so figured i should pull it out and have a gander...

it wasnt making any real noises only a small clunk on take off occasionally (which got me suspicious) any the air locker has always worked as it should...

this is what i found..





what would cause this? its like the sun gears have grabbed the shaft and spun it and snapped the dowels....

so how to fix..?? is it worth putting new dowels ???

i was thinking of being REALLY ruff and welding the pin into the centre.. as i need the ute next thurs for 4 days.. and then getting a new airlocker center?!

Is it an ARB unit.......




If so Joeblow's gunna get on tell you it was obviously poor installation on behalf of you, your mechanic, your gran, your dog, but never ARB or their authorised distributors/installers



Sorry had to put that there, don't know what may have caused it and hope you can get it fixed easily enough.

Cheers

I would say new dowels would be a good idea. To stop the dowels moving try a few heavy centerpunch marks about 2mm away from the hole and about 6-8 times around the hole in the locker case to displace the metal at the very edge of the hole. This should be enough to prevent any further movement of the dowels in the holes.

get new dowels and new pins that hold them in place. Your local ARB should have them in stock and shouldn't cost any more than 30-40 bucks

I had a similar problem with my early model RD23 ARB locker. Dowels moved, locking up the front diff center. I took it to Jmac diff and gear and he tells me that since it's the old style of ARB locker it's not uncommon and he's seen it quite a bit.

Seems something about the housing that holds those pins flogs out and allows them to move about. I got lucky and was able to source a replacement housing at a fair amount of cost, i'm told the better option is to replace with a later model locker.

Mate, Mine does the same thing (I think). When I first go to move it in the morning there is a slight clang and clunk. But then its fine. Is this the same??? Only problem with mine is I have no idea when the lockers where installed as they where already there. What year did the new lockers come out?

TheBigBoy wrote:Mate, Mine does the same thing (I think). When I first go to move it in the morning there is a slight clang and clunk. But then its fine. Is this the same??? Only problem with mine is I have no idea when the lockers where installed as they where already there. What year did the new lockers come out?

sounds like the same prob matey, i'd say mine is the early one as i have had it in 6 years at least

pulled the centre apart and found that the sun gear had grabbed the shaft.. its not too happy at all. so have to get a new shaft and one sun gear and dowels

crankycruiser wrote:pulled the centre apart and found that the sun gear had grabbed the shaft.. its not too happy at all. so have to get a new shaft and one sun gear and dowels

Have just replaced the sun gears in my arb, only req one but they only sell them as a kit about $300 for the kit.
I also had to replace the piston(plastic cage that engages the locker) cause the broken piece off the sun gear mashed up shit inside.
But now works like new and it had copped a flogging for nearly 8 years without a problem.

Ordered all the bits today. Sun gears are on back order. A few weeks away apparently.! So old sun gears will have to go back in for a few weeks!

Struth wrote:Is it an ARB unit.......




If so Joeblow's gunna get on tell you it was obviously poor installation on behalf of you, your mechanic, your gran, your dog, but never ARB or their authorised distributors/installers

Cheers

see that rust sitting on the casing? if that contaminated oil is also inside the diff than its possible there was corrosion between the cross shaft and pinion gear, causing it to grab and rotate the shaft breaking the pin (does not take a lot, rust is not a good lubricant). no fualt of installer here........unless they threw some water in the diff for you too!


when putting it back together make sure you clean out all the water and make sure you clean any corrosion that may be around these areas.

Bloody Toyotas, eh Ray?

Portal Pat wrote:Bloody Toyotas are awesome, pity everything else isn't, eh Ray?

Fixed !



brooksy

Portal Pat wrote:Bloody Toyotas, eh Ray?

Nothing wrong with the Toyota parts Pat its the ARB that let me down!

joeblow wrote:

Struth wrote:Is it an ARB unit.......




If so Joeblow's gunna get on tell you it was obviously poor installation on behalf of you, your mechanic, your gran, your dog, but never ARB or their authorised distributors/installers

Cheers

see that rust sitting on the casing? if that contaminated oil is also inside the diff than its possible there was corrosion between the cross shaft and pinion gear, causing it to grab and rotate the shaft breaking the pin (does not take a lot, rust is not a good lubricant). no fualt of installer here........unless they threw some water in the diff for you too!


when putting it back together make sure you clean out all the water and make sure you clean any corrosion that may be around these areas.

That rust is minor, negligable surface rust that could appear overnight and probably only resultant from not being in 4wd often enough seeing as it's only on one side that wasn't emmersed in oil.

being the rear diff, I would suspect it was regularly immersed in oil

cool..........rusty diffs are ok.............thanks for clearing that up.

joeblow wrote:cool..........rusty diffs are ok.............thanks for clearing that up.

When I pulled the diff down there was no rust on ANYTHING else in the diff. I'd say that rust on the outer case is just cause it doesn't get driven very often

crankycruiser wrote:

joeblow wrote:cool..........rusty diffs are ok.............thanks for clearing that up.

When I pulled the diff down there was no rust on ANYTHING else in the diff. I'd say that rust on the outer case is just cause it doesn't get driven very often

Isn't rust from lack of use a standard Toyota 4WD feature?