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Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:54 am
by AZZA FJ40
Hi All,

Do air lockers generally stay in until your car has rotated to release or should they release straight away?

Also my back locker is leaking air out of the diff breather, is this a common problem? just an O ring or something?

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:50 pm
by popeyehj60
most commonly the orings have perished and are leaking or it could be the copper lines is pierced.
only way to find out is pull the center and check for air leaks.
releasing all depends on the load placed on the center. if its under load it wont always release.

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:14 pm
by GUtripper
Yes they should release fairly quickly and smoothly, unless under a fair load at the time as said.
If it's not unlocking, it may be because the diff oil is contaminated and the piston and locking cannot slide back.

I had a piston (actually, it's a resin type of plastic cage) break and jam.... Diff locked permanently until it could be disassembled and cleaned out.

When they work, they are great. When they don't, they are a right PITA

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 2:40 pm
by hulsty
Oil can also get stuck behind the internal O ring making them a PITA

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 3:29 pm
by AZZA FJ40
Thanks guys,

Just finding it very difficult to turn the front when the locker is on. I think ill put some sort of hydro assist on

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:02 pm
by turbo gu
With the locker on it will always be hard to turn!

As for the lockers sticking I have found the new style ARBs dont unlock very easily. Hard to punch the throttle on and off sometimes to release mine.

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:35 am
by pigletracing
yep!! I rember those days with "O" rings leeking, blowing oil back up the lines, lockers not engaging or dis-engaging exactly when you need them to!
It made some of the special stages (in races) a little harder & some times dangerous. That was when your locker was telling you that it needs a service.
Thankfully the new TJM Pro-Locker dosnt have internal air actuator's, so this problem for me is gone!

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:16 am
by DaGMan
They don't release easily under load as the gears are locked, relaese some throttle and you may find it will release. Quick test is to try engage while stopped and then just roll forward after unlocking and it should pop out otherwise time to pull apart.

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:03 pm
by JWB
Do you get the normal sound when you dis-engage it??

My front arb seemed to be hanging on a bit? When I decided to look into it, I pulled the solinoid off as a starting point.

Long story short, Damn mud wasps had clogged up the exit air port so it failed to dis-engage in the normal way!

cheers

Re: Air locker difficult to disengage

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:56 am
by pigletracing
JWB wrote:Do you get the normal sound when you dis-engage it??

My front arb seemed to be hanging on a bit? When I decided to look into it, I pulled the solinoid off as a starting point.

Long story short, Damn mud wasps had clogged up the exit air port so it failed to dis-engage in the normal way!

cheers
those mud wasps have no respect!!!! I couldn't get my whipper-snipper going one year. I pulled that starter cord till i was blue in the face !! I cleaned the spark plug & pulled again !!
I put fresh fuel in,cleaned the spark plug & pulled again!!! just before I threw it over the back fence I found that mud wasps had made a home in the exhaust witch totally suffocated the motor :bad-words: :bad-words: :bad-words: :snipersmile: MUDWASP