Thread: Vacuum to mechanical diff lock conversion

So it looks like I'll have to use a morse cable to activate the mechanical selector from the cab over position.

It would have been so much easier if I were able to have a vacuum switch.

Made a manual diff lock lever for my Stage 1 after it inconveniently got stuck on while at Fraser Island quite a few years ago. Had to remove the front prop shaft to drive home so figured I'd go a manual set up to avoid this happening again.
Can't remember exactly how I did it, but did bust of the old diaphragm housing and made up a plate with a pivot and bent up a bit of round bar that poked up through the floor near the tunnel.
Just took a couple of photos. Hard to get a pic from underneath, but the round oily bar with two bends in it is where to look.
Diff lock lever.jpg

Diff lock lever bracket.jpg

Is this what you were thinking of? (Assuming it works - posting photos here always seems so complicated.)

I don't know where on Earth I found this piccie. I just copied it for future use. I'm thinking of making the same thing as even if the vacuum set-up is pretty reliable I don't want it to fail in the middle of nowhere.

And yes, I've also noticed that Google has suddenly become useless for searches of more than one word!

Originally Posted by Davo

Is this what you were thinking of? (Assuming it works - posting photos here always seems so complicated.)

I don't know where on Earth I found this piccie. I just copied it for future use. I'm thinking of making the same thing as even if the vacuum set-up is pretty reliable I don't want it to fail in the middle of nowhere.

And yes, I've also noticed that Google has suddenly become useless for searches of more than one word!

Yeah that's pretty close. It's not the same set up though. The one I saw had the lever on the gearbox side, not the driver's side.

If the vacuum fails it would be easier, I would have thought, to remove the driver's side floor and simply pull it out? I did that to fix the corroded warning lamp wire on mine. Took about 10 minutes all up.

But it's also a bit fiddly in there to remove the vacuum actuator itself. Anyway, I don't really want to start taking bits of car apart in the middle of nowhere. That would be embarrassing, removing a Landie floor when some station bloke in a Toyota drives up.

Originally Posted by Davo

But it's also a bit fiddly in there to remove the vacuum actuator itself. Anyway, I don't really want to start taking bits of car apart in the middle of nowhere. That would be embarrassing, removing a Landie floor when some station bloke in a Toyota drives up.

You mean something like this?



My wife loves me sooo much

If anyone wants one for a RRC go to Land Vehicle Spares and find my old green 2dr on the second row of racking.

I just pulled the bolt out of the shaft and fitted a rod end so the solid round bar could move in it. Put a left/right 90 bend just long enough in between to pass through the floor and made a collar for a brass bush for it to pivot on and fix to the floor. Plenty of leverage and only one bracket.

Originally Posted by cal415

Hasn't anyone actually replaced the diaphragm in the actuator?? i think it cost me 5 bucks for a diaphragm about about an hours work, you can pry the press fitting off around the vacuum pod undo the bolt replace diaphragm goop it up with gasket maker around the press fitting and crimp it back down with pliers.

for the switch i cleaned it out with degreaser, wd40 and lightly blew compressed air through it, it had alot of oil and crud in it.

After all this it worked perfectly till i pulled the lt95 out.

The mob in Brisbane (Qld rollers and liners) no longer make the replacement diaphram kit for the vacuum diff locks. Apparently there was so little demand for them that they stopped making them. They told me the company who supplied the metal clamp also no longer supplies them so I guess we have to buy the genuine item now.