Step by step removal and installation of e-locker 3rd member

Nice write up, thanks for the information...

 

Kind of disturbing that the ring and pinion gears dont seem to hold up well on these trucks. Maybe underdized gears for the wt of the truck? Or offroad driving rough on it. Just curious what problem could be!

 

They're plenty strong but skinny pedal takes its toll sometimes.

 

Oh, ok.well u guys put up some great info on all this stuff. Im still learning about these trucks and am very thanklful with any info i get. So great job, esp since u have done it offroad. Very impressive.

 

@MonkeyProof Don't know if it was mentioned before in the thread, I'm mid install right now, taking a quick break. Something I thought of doing that's working good and has pro's and cons...jack the truck up, put on jack stands, jack rear axle enough that the tires are about an inch off the ground, jack stands under the axle, lower axle enough so the tires are just baaaaareeelly off the ground, then when you pull the axles out, the tires hold the axles up and out. Just something I'm trying that seems to be working fine. Pro's don't have to take the tires off. Con's not as much room under the truck to work, but I'm not super cramped.

 

Also, diff was waaaaay worse than I thought, finding chunks of metal, ring gear is chunked. Glad I stopped driving it last week when I heard howling from the diff!

 

Thanks to this thread, got my 3rd out, sent it out to ECGS along with my nitro 4.88 gears and master install kit, got it back in less than a week (nearly $400 just for shipping) and got it back together. Thanks again @MonkeyProof




Gonna be turning 37s so I'm gonna have to baby it till I can afford a 9.5" diamond for the rear.

 

Going to be following along with these instructions in a few weeks.

 

pulled my axles out to pull my third today and gear oil came out of one end...

i proceeded to check the drums and no leak and pads are dry so im assuming its the inner seal that is bad? any experience from someone who has dealt with this or has changed them out?

 

Great write up.

Have any of you had problems getting the e-locker out? I tried to pull the locker out tonight but was unable to. Unbolted the three bolts holding it on and pried it as far as it would go, but it doesn't seem to want to come out. Judging by the pictures in the first post it should just pull right off. Am I missing something? It gets almost half way out and then feels like something is pulling on it. I don't want to force it the rest of the way and break something because I'm just trying to fix the locker.

 

with a flat head go in and try to nudge the gears loose? had this happen with a friend when we were swapping his out but we just kept wiggling it around until it let out

 

Sometimes it binds up on the bolts. Like John said, just keep wiggling it and it'll come loose.

 

Thanks guys. I'll give it a shot again in the morning. Like I mentioned, I didn't want to go from bad to worse. Good to know that it can stick.

 

Thanks OP for the how-to... this is REALLY helpful, especially with the pics.

Trying to swap in a new third member my the driveway before it gets too cold and the part I got stuck is when you need disconnect the axles from the housing and pull them out a few inches... I needed to sacrifice a sharp wood chisel to break the bond between the axle housing and the bracket after the four 14 mm nuts are removed. I guess after 80k miles of New England weather, things tend to fuse together a bit. The some Kroil, a sharp chisel and 4lb sledge hammer did the trick.

I should be able to finish her up tomorrow. Thanks again!!

 

Thanks for the write up! I used it today and wouldn’t have known to switch the locker to locker to get the new third in.

 

Thank OP for the write-up ,helped me install an ARB locker this past weekend

 

I'll chime in and say thank you as well! Working by myself and I got the old 3rd out and the new one installed in a couple of hours.

Now to tackle the front.

 

So I just pulled the 3rd member out of my first gen. The bearings had gone bad and it was grinding like crazy. I pulled the diff out and brought it to a shop to be rebuilt with new bearings. I put it back together last night with some cheap 80w90 oil because the auto parts store had closed and that’s all Walmart had. The truck runs and sounds great now, but when I drained the oil to fill it with some good stuff, the oil had a ton of metal shavings in it. Like, a ton. Is this normal when breaking in new bearings? The oil looked metallic.

 

Need clarification from the 1st page - do we need to mark the drive shaft and pinion flange?

 

Not neccessary