Eaton Front Diff eLocker

Not true of 3rd gen factory elocker. Everything is in the diff, no fork, no gears, no motor. It's a electromagnetic actuator (solenoid) moving a shift collar and it's all internal.

 

yup yup he was in 2wd when he engaged it, def not ideal

 

Ahhhh interesting, I did not know that. My experience with the factory e locker is out of the 2nd gens. That’s pretty sweet, so does the 3rd Gen locker stay engaged once it’s locked in regardless of forward or reverse motion?

 

Yes. It's actually a dog clutch that locks a side gear to the carrier. Only play is the backlash in the clutch.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/stock-8-75-bd22an-locker-dissection.674592/

 

Yep, just went out and tested it. Sometimes the indicator won't stop blinking/fully engage till I drive a few yards though....not sure what that's about

 

Here is the circuit I made to prevent this from happening on my truck. It is very simple and goes in the driver's footwell kick panel. I can't lock the front unless the rear is locked or in the process of locking. This is specific to 2nd gens, which have a motor which drives the actuator into the locked position. I believe 3rd gens use an electromagnet, which would make this even easier. The same principle should apply.



The solid-state relay on the left allows energizing the front locker when the rear is locked, via the grounding switch at the rear differential. This is the same signal that tells the 4WD computer module that the rear is locked, which lights up a dash indicator and disables ABS. By manually grounding this line through a dash switch, we can manually disable ABS, without actually locking the rear. The lower diode in my circuit allows me to retain this "ABS disable" behavior, while still ensuring that the front locker doesn't engage unless the rear is actually locked.

The SSR on the right allows a parallel option to engage the front locker, in this case, when the motor is energized to lock the rear. In 2nd gens, this motor provides the force to engage the locker, but it doesn't engage until the gears sync up to complete the shift. Adding this pathway allows me to lock the front while the rear is still in the process of engaging. Both front and rear lockers on my truck generally require some additional motion of the truck before they fully engage, but this way, I don't have to wait for the rear to complete the shift before starting the front.

This combination of circuitry doesn't interfere with the ABS disable mod, and also gives me a dash LED to indicate that the front locker is energized. Note that the LED must be rated for 12V.