Diff locks

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:29 pm

The appeal of an air locking (or otherwise locking) mechanism is so you can lock the diff while driving WITHOUT having to give it a bootful of power.
Alot of the time when offroading I find myself slowly crawling along rocks and wanting the diff locked, but flooring the car at that point would be dangerous.

I could just have a welded diff, but having a locked diff when offroad can also be dangerous in certain situations.

Hence, being able to lock and unlock the diff with the flick of a switch to suit the circumstances is very desirable (from my point of view).

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:06 am

bluesteel wrote:for those who dont know....

detroit mechanical lockers operate when on and off the power

eg; give it a bootfull and it locks up

take it nice and gently and it stays open like a normal diff

so it should be perfectly fine for every day driving, just a little quirky if you have a heavy foot

well thats my understanding of it anyway

oh and an air locker would be awesome for the front, as a locked fromt makes things very difficult to turn and a helluva lot more prone to breakages because of the angles on everything when turning

Hey Bluesteel, have you ever driven a vehicle with an auto locker?
The Detroit, Lock-rite, Ezy locker, Lokka to name a few are normally locked and only unlock when one wheel overspeeds the other when cornering under no-load. This causes the typical clicking noise that will make people think you've got a busted CV. These things are not for the faint hearted. You WILL have to adjust your driving style to suit.

Brumby Boy wrote:well let me think now.... HELL yess put me down for one, but only if it can be deactivated either mechanicly or phumaticly, if its just going to be on full time i may as well just weld it

Only if it's welded, which is more like a spool, it wont be able to unlock when nessessary. Like when you're backing out of a tight carpark at full lock and the rear end is trying to tear itself clean out of your car.

Fang · Post by **Fang** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:02 am

brumbyrunner wrote:The Detroit, Lock-rite, Ezy locker, Lokka to name a few are normally locked and only unlock when one wheel overspeeds the other when cornering under no-load. This causes the typical clicking noise that will make people think you've got a busted CV. These things are not for the faint hearted. You WILL have to adjust your driving style to suit.

So do you still need to give it a bootful to kick in? I thought this would act like an LSD but with the added benefit of locking when a rear wheel is in the air (ie lost traction). I am interested in the on-road driving side of things if anyone has any experienced input.

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:17 am

guys you have it wrong about how this diff works. it IS locked any time it is being driven. You dont need to boot it, its not an LSD

When you turn a corner on road it allows the outside wheel to speed up. Thats the genius of it. An LSD will let the inside wheel slip and slow down, but this is the opposite. There are no issues with on road use. You just drive the car in FWD on the road, and the rer diff looks after itself.

I really dont see the advantage of an air locker. This works perfect

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:10 am

These manual type diff locks are usually called "auto un-lockers" because of the traits outlined above.

Here is a good explaination if you haven't got a handle on it yet - http://www.4wdsystems.com.au/html/lokka_discuss.htm

I would highly reccomend a rear diff lock and having been in the car this diff is out of twice off-road with different drivers I would love to have one. (Thats not an order for one though). For those that have not been in a locked car off-road its like having 10 blokes on the back of your car pushing you through the hard stuff.

PeeJay · Post by **PeeJay** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:32 am

Pencil me in

bluesteel · Post by **bluesteel** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:15 am

thanks for the clearing up...

i havent driven a car with one of these in it... was just going off what a mate of mine said when he had a torana with a detroit in it

and by the sounds of it... auto unlocker is the perfect way top describe them

cheers

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:27 am

Forgot to say dangerous, the advantage of air locker is when you get bored with driving over/through everything so easily you can turn off the locker and try the same thing with open diffs.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:44 am

A friend of mine has a detroit locker on the front of his Patrol. Why would we not put one in the front of a subaru ?

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:56 am

stinky wrote:A friend of mine has a detroit locker on the front of his Patrol. Why would we not put one in the front of a subaru ?

Big 4WD's like that have the ability to disconnect the front diff via locking hubs or disconnecting diff. As you would already know. So it wouldn't cause a problem on-road.

Oh, unless it's FT4WD, is it?

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:21 pm

your mate has a detroit in the front axle. he drives round in RWD on the road

in the case of a subaru you have a detroit in the rear, and drive round in FWD on the road.

My point was though that a front detroit locker is going to be competely different to this locker which is a rear diff. You cant stick a rear diff inside the front diff housing theyre totally different.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:04 pm

of course... I'm an idiot... continue

daveosubi · Post by **daveosubi** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:30 pm

If you can operate the rear by air will they still lock mechanically if the air hasn't switched them on?. Im guessing the front you would only want to lock when operated by air.

I know it's early days and I dont really know alot about them.

daza · Post by **daza** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:27 pm

The Auto-unlocker is quite a simple thing mechanically, Air lockers are not, with a Detriot to compare with the Back Yard Boys wont have any trouble making Unlockers but I don't think Air lockers will prove worth the trouble...
If they do i'll have an Air locker for the front and an Unlocker for the rear through!!!
Dane, here's hoping they can adapt a locker to suit a front diff carrier!
Daza.

Outback bloke · Post by **Outback bloke** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:30 am

You cant stick a rear diff inside the front diff housing theyre totally different.

I know but the principal is exactly the same. The diffs are very similar.

Dane, here's hoping they can adapt a locker to suit a front diff carrier!

Exactly what we are going to try to do.

Adding one of these diffs is not going to make a Subaru a rock crawler. They don't have a low enough gearing to make enough power at low revs. You are still going to have to use some power to get up and over things.

It will make them keep going forward when the back wheels come off the ground.

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:25 am

BYB-01 wrote: Adding one of these diffs is not going to make a Subaru a rock crawler. They don't have a low enough gearing to make enough power at low revs. You are still going to have to use some power to get up and over things.

That said I still consider Mark's (and then scott's) RX to be the most capable subaru offroader i know of. His ability to motor slowly up stuff everyone else is hitting at speed was pretty impressive. This is in the bish of course, in the sand dunes theres no substitute for power to weight (the vortex was a perfect example)

We often told him to do stuff in reverse cos he got up so easily going forwards!

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:51 am

daveosubi wrote:If you can operate the rear by air will they still lock mechanically if the air hasn't switched them on?. Im guessing the front you would only want to lock when operated by air.

I know it's early days and I dont really know alot about them.

Nope. No air means no diff lock for air locker. You can see how they work here - http://www.arb.com.au/arb-air-locker-de ... eering.php

bluesteel · Post by **bluesteel** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:12 am

by the looks of it theres a listing for a r180 and a r200 for a nissan on the arb site

Wilbur · Post by **Wilbur** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:01 am

So what would be the difference between an R160 and an R180 ? Axle size ?

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:40 am

talk to the RSLC boys. theres a few guys on there running R180 rear ends. They are meant to be a heap stronger.