Thread: Isuzzzu lockers

I have a Maxi drive in the rear of mine plus an open 4 pinion steel carrier front. Bought a truetrac for the front when the dollar was pretty much aligned with the US buck and will probably fit it early in the new year with Jacmac upgraded front inners in an upgraded housing.The MD has been in the rear since the early 90's and the only problem I had was early in the piece I found my drive flange splines were wearing to the extent that one of them let go. Both axles and flanges were MD. Replaced the axles and flanges (this time I put the standard county flanges back on as sacraficial items) and oil lubed everything. No problems since.

If the Ashcroft Salisbury difflock becomes a reality, it will be the pick of the crop IMO. Unfortunately due to the sheer weight of the Salisbury carrier, freight costs from the UK will hurt a bit. The design and strength is superior to ARB and Maxi. Installation costs beat Maxidrive by a country mile if you had to pay a commercial enterprise an extra 7 hrs or so labor at someting like $70 hr to do it for you.
Bill.

OK got an email back fromMD, 2700 or there abouts. i dont know why but they want my diff to start with? sheesh so i guess that's not going to work out.

Originally Posted by 85 county

OK got an email back fromMD, 2700 or there abouts. i dont know why but they want my diff to start with? sheesh so i guess that's not going to work out.

They want your diff carrier so they can cut one of the bearing journals off to brooch out and press an internal/ externally splined replacement journal for the sliding dog clutch to engage with.
As IsuzuRover mentioned, they supply a complete new carrier for overseas customers, but if they are charging $2700 to modify an existing one then they are not really going to sell too many anywhere IMO.
Bill

Originally Posted by wagoo

I have no personal commercial barrow to push with the following comments, which are my personal experiences from owning a twin Salisbury diffed LandRover fitted with first 2, then 1 and then no Detroit lockers.
Constant 4wd may to a degree mask the handling quirks and foibles of Detroit Lockers,which are influenced by unequal tyre pressures, diameters, road camber etc when on hard surfaces, but in my experience they are still there and become apparent on medium speed wet slippery 4wd tracks.
Also from a mechanical durabilty viewpoint, not only of the locker itself, but the whole drivetrain, they are less than ideal.
To be capable of unlocking when making a turn, they depend on backlash between the dog teeth of the central driver and the teeth of each side gear.According to specs this backlash is 13 degrees.Multiply that by the crownwheel and pinion ratio of 3.54:1 and add a few degrees for axle spline clearances and crownwheel /pinion backlash and we end up with around 50 degrees of free movement at the propshaft before drive reaches the wheels. Constant 4wd LandRovers have enough annoying backlash as they are.Add a loosish centre diff to the equation and we have a very sloppy drivetrain indeed.
Whilst a mechanically sympathetic driver can compensate for some of this slack by adopting a modified clutch operating practice during gearchanging, this backlash is pontentially destructive in more challenging offroad terrain where the wheels can be alternately gripping and scrabbling for traction. The impact forces that can be generated by backlash could be likened to the analogy of a hammer and nail. If you rest the hammer head on the head of the nail ,(no backlash) you can push down with all your might and the nail won't penetrate the wood to any degree. Lift the hammer head several centimetres before striking the nail and things start to happen.
These impact forces not only place extra stress on the halfshafts in a grip and scrabble scenario, but also feeds back through the whole driveline.
Quite aside from all that, it is well documented that the quality of materials and manufacture of later Detroit lockers is quite inferior to their earlier efforts and small design changes have resulted in a unit that generally rips the dog teeth of the side and cam gears when a halfshaft fails. A search on American 4wd forums such as Pirate 4x4,com where Detroits are much more common will back up this claim.
Bill.

Hi Bill,

Totally agree there, especially with the backlash issues but for some reason the driveability is still really good. I have a near zero backlash TR LT95, and the trutrack has less than a standard diff. All my CV's, axles and flanges are in perfect cond. The Isuzu in lowrange requires very little throttle input, it is like a bulldozer really

I drive more like an old person these days, too.

I chose the Detroit options due to simplicity (No compressors, lines, solenoids etc etc), and knowing I have past the time in my life of out and out hardcore offroading...

JC

Originally Posted by justinc

Hi Bill,

and knowing I have past the time in my life of out and out hardcore offroading...

JC

Hi Justin. I think I'm heading in the same direction. I don't know whether it is age or the fact that in the region where I live we have lots of hardcore 4wd terrain literally at our door step and I'm getting over it.
I find that by choice I'm using the hybrid less and less these days, and generally prefer more relaxed soft roading in the Jackaroo. I also find that the wife doesn't abandon ship anywhere near as often when we come across a bit of relatively challenging terrain in the Jack
Bill.

is the D60 ARB air locker better/stronger than the Sals version?
can the D60 ARB air locker be installed in a Sals?

I have MD front and rear. Im very happy with them, never a single problem so far. The rear would be 8-9 years old. Front I run a RR OEM cv with Hy-tuf stub axle shaft. Mal said he never made much money on the lockers. I guess thats why they have gone up in price. Plus the fact steel prices go up every month thanks to China and India.

Bill didnt you have a design for a difflock?

Off topic, but what grates with me is how simple and inexpensive it is for a diff lock if done by the factory (such as the Volvo C303 factory locker) compared to what we need to spend to retrofit aftermarket lockers to a diff.