doubleg

Heres the story, I had a bad pinion bearing, that took out my ring and pinion when wheeling a couple of weeks ago. I replaced the ring and pinion and basically had the whole front diff rebuilt, except the Aussie locker that was already in the carrier. We didnt touch that. It seemed to work fine before the pinion bearing went. So after getting my rig home from the shop to have my new gears set I noticed something i hadnt noticed before. The previous owner or one of the previous owners had literally welded the ujoints to the axle shaft. I should have taken a picture. It had very little horizontal movement and no vertical movement at all. Im surprised I didnt snap it on my very first wheeling trip. Before I fixed the axle and replaced the ujoint 2 wheel drive was great, it wasnt until I put it in 4 high that the clunking and clanging began. I was hoping it was the axle shaft actually having some bind/torque on it because of the weld and the amount of rust in there, but now im fearing that that Aussie locker might have been damaged when the ring and pinion got chewed up with all the bearings and everything else inside my front diff. Before I put the front cover on and filled it with fluid I took a quick look at the locker and it "looked" fine, but that doesnt mean anything. With me if it can go wrong it will. So I was wondering if there is any way to tell if the locker itself is broken, there doesnt look like there is alot of room in the carrier to move stuff around or anything, and I dont know that much about these lunchbox lockers. I did install a Spartan in my rear 8.25 about a month ago, but im no expert. Anyone have any suggestions on what to check or anything?

Thanks
Greg

weebur

I've install Powertrax No-Slip and Spartan lockers and I think the procedure for the Aussie is the same. With both wheels off the ground rotate the wheels forward until both wheels are turning in the same direction. Then with someone holding on to one of the wheels, jerk the other wheel backwards hard. You should hear the locker disengage and start clicking. Then do the same for the other wheel.

If the Aussie is the same, there will be a measurement between the drivers that can't exceed a set amount. Changing your ring/pinion/rebuilding the whole assembly may have altered the distance between the drivers. I'd go to the Aussie website and download their instruction manual.