Thread: Gazza's ARB has issues

Gary,

First up I just want to say I am not even a fan of the ARB branding, but unfortunately for the manual activated lockers they are up there with the best (yes even if you take into acount the thousands of oil return dramas).

The actual locking mechanism on the arb is a very good design, it's the way that mechanism is activated that is not so great. In the old style it was prone to leaking and blowing seals, this has been changed on the new style (RD128), but for reasons unknown, they swapped the feed to the opposite side of the crwon wheel. This meaning that the airline has to be routed over the crown wheel inside the diff, some vehicles would have less then 10mm of clearance in this area. That's a slight concern to me.

back on topic - The fact that you have parts of the locker floating around inside the diff tells me that maybe this ARB has not had the best treatment in the past, and possibly some assembly issues.

Has this locker ever had a crown wheel spit a few teeth? The main (well only actually) reason I have found ARB lockers to destroy the carrier gears is due to foreign bits of crown wheel or pinion entering the carrier and running between the side & sun gears.

As for locking problems, slow engagement of the locker is generally considered normal, but if it is of concern, things to check are, leaks or kinks in the airline, pressure switch for correct pressure activation, the locker should have 80-105psi feeding the airlines, if it is less the activation can be very slow or not at all.

So what options do you have? Well personally unless you are willing to fork out for a brand new McNamurra locker, just fix the ARB. The KAM locker is in no way my preffered choice of locker and I would struggle to reccomend it to anyone.

Good luck, hope you sort something out soon, I know how frustrating it can be when you have something that just doesn't work as it should. But stick to it and you shall sucseed (sp?)

Had both maxi and ARB's over the past 10 years, the ARB's have been pretty good. The rear was new and fitted by ARB (did surprisingly enough a ggood job, could have changed the pinion seal ) and has the HT 24 spline axles, front I got for a trade on my LRA 2 1/2 body lift kit that I had fitted to the Vog.

I also had a ARB aiur locker on one of my old Rangies in the past, which was a right PIA (self-install) and I had all sorts of issues with the o-ring as it would always leak. I ended up sellling it and using the money to fund the front maxi-drive at the time.

I still prefer Maxi-drives, would still have them if you could get parts easily enough plus my rear maxi was a real old 28 spline so parts were as rare as rocking horse **** to start with

Trav

Thanks to all who have thrown in their 20 cents worth on this issue.

Tim do you have a link to Jmac

Grimace You have looked into the heart of the new style ARB, is the activating method better than the Rubber Cup Washer used in the earlier ones, to push the plastic cage.

That was the last time I (read Harry) pulled out the ARB apart, the cup washer was seized in place.

Time before that the small O-Rings had warn the collar away. Hiss Hiss air leaking into diff housing. (in and out 3 times to fix that one)
PS parts for older style not in stock, kept getting sent parts for new style which did not fit, told that they would but no way.
Thanks to South Brisbane ARB at Cooperoo who were the only ARB to make sense and keep on the case till they found the correct thing.
They also have a cool test track, which they were kind enough to let me have a rip on, inspired our Test Track at Terranora.

Time before that the air line melted, no more locka working, just continuous compressor noise.

As for this time, I don’t know what the go is till I pull the centre completely out. I have had an industry conference this week so fix the ARB has had to wait, hopefully this Friday

Really not sure of the wisdom of forking out folding stuff for a New one???

While on the subject, I priced a winch extension strap from ARB it was nearly double the price of the same OX from TJM…..

Stay tuned

Gaz

Originally Posted by CheekyD1

Thanks to all who have thrown in their 20 cents worth on this issue.

Tim do you have a link to Jmac

Grimace You have looked into the heart of the new style ARB, is the activating method better than the Rubber Cup Washer used in the earlier ones, to push the plastic cage.

That was the last time I (read Harry) pulled out the ARB apart, the cup washer was seized in place.

Time before that the small O-Rings had warn the collar away. Hiss Hiss air leaking into diff housing. (in and out 3 times to fix that one)
PS parts for older style not in stock, kept getting sent parts for new style which did not fit, told that they would but no way.
Thanks to South Brisbane ARB at Cooperoo who were the only ARB to make sense and keep on the case till they found the correct thing.
They also have a cool test track, which they were kind enough to let me have a rip on, inspired our Test Track at Terranora.

Time before that the air line melted, no more locka working, just continuous compressor noise.

As for this time, I don’t know what the go is till I pull the centre completely out. I have had an industry conference this week so fix the ARB has had to wait, hopefully this Friday

Really not sure of the wisdom of forking out folding stuff for a New one???

While on the subject, I priced a winch extension strap from ARB it was nearly double the price of the same OX from TJM…..

Stay tuned

Gaz

Here you go..

Jack McNamara - Differential Specialists

Aparently he is realy hard to deal with but his products are as good as maxi-drive

TIM.

Originally Posted by long stroke

apart from abit of diff oil leaking into the rear air line
CHEERS TIM.

Check out the breather tube on the diff, possibly blocked maybe at the banjo fitting, thus oil down the air line.

Read my thread, rang Jacmac today.Everyone one says his product is good, but u might have to wait a while if u want one.
Cheers Dean.

Originally Posted by aquarangie

I still prefer Maxi-drives, would still have them if you could get parts easily enough plus my rear maxi was a real old 28 spline so parts were as rare as rocking horse **** to start with

Trav

Trav, one advantage of the 28 spline maxi's is that most parts are still available. Barry still has some stock of axles and MR have plenty of side gears also which is the main component that are not available in the 24 spline maxi's.

Ok for all the viewers watching along.

It was diff center removal day today.

http://dedq15.mindfly.com/uploads/PDF/onlineManualsGuides/2-RD07.pdf

Remember from previous posts, the Small Cross Pin (Number 7 in PDF above) was found in the bottom of the diff housing along with some other crunchy parts.

The crunchy parts, turned out to be the Small bolts which hold the hemi-sphere together. (12)

They were in various states of munched-up-ness.

Some other metal filings were also discovered in the diff sump, this turned out to be the small pins (5) which usually hold the Cross pins in place.

So the failure
The small bolts have come undone (Why I don’t know they were torque up to the manual setting Harry is anal about that stuff) this allowed the retaining pins to exit the cross pins, the side gears then spun the cross pins which made the retaining pins into metal dust. (Completely gone)

How the small cross pin got out beats me, to get the other 3 pins out I have to remove the Crown wheel.

The worst part is that the housing (3) is deformed, I don’t know if it will work, it usually locates part 10 in place, it is still flat but the running loose have deformed the lip, such that only the bolts them selves would be holding (10) in place.

The good news, (3) is only $250 and the pins and retainers + bolts about $50

The Bad news delivery time on (3) is 8-10 weeks.

The rest is in stock in Brisbane.

So what to do, do I slap it back together with all the new bits I can get into the old case. $50
Put an open center in an wait
Buy new style locka $1200

PS for those looking for ARB Locka manuals they are on the ARBUSA.com site @ http://www.arbusa.com/Products/Air-Lockers/10.aspx Click on Air Lockers then Parts ans Service