Factory E-Locker Problems

anyone who has had a problem with their factory Toyota E-Lockers, on 2nd gen Tacomas, post them here. explain what happened and how/if toyota fixed it.

 

Little paranoid now?

I wouldn't worry. Toyota seems to have ironed out the kinks that were causing on-asphalt problems. If you put the locker to work, you'll likely have trouble sooner or later. Good excuse for a regear.

 

hahaha no just thinking about what you said, and how its true we dont have a thread/sticky for it. so im hoping some people will share their experiences, you first!

would be a good excuse to convince the wife to let me get on board air/arb air locker

 

any problems! but locker related obviously...

 

This is what the first one looked like:



It happened when I got recovered off a log in reverse as best I can tell...several people outside the truck heard a noise. Truck didn't begin acting up until a couple hundred feet more down the trail. The locker wasn't engaged during the recovery.

This is what the second one looked like:



This happened on a trail creeping up a rock obstacle. Again, the locker was not engaged.

Both came from offroad use. In neither case was I beating the truck's ass, but things were sufficiently rough that I needed the locker on the trail and it had been in use. Bad luck?

 

i hope so

hows that happen without the e-locker engaged? looks like you took chunks out of the gears..

 

X2. What the sam hell?

 

can you put 4:10's from a 4 cylinder right into the diffs on these trucks? are they fully interchangeable?

 

Well, simply put, the engine is putting force on the differential gears one way, and an unseen event outside the vehicle (A tire grabbing traction, or getting bound up between two rocks, or whatever) resists that force. One's trying to go, the other is trying to stop, and sometimes the gears break before go wins or stop wins. If go wins, you just spin your tires or move forward. If stop wins, you just don't go anywhere. If the gears lose, you'll know in a hurry from the noise

See above.

The e-locker differential does not have the bearing cap trusses seen in the non-locked diffs. Here's a pic comparison:



Note the two bearing trusses that run in front of the ring gear on the non-locked diff. Note they are also absent in the e-locker diff above:




The theory is this, along with smaller mounting studs (8mm instead of 10mm) allows the third member to deflect under load, causes the gear tolerances (backlash, etc.) to go out of spec, gears bind, and bang.

 

I'd have to do a little research. IIRC (and I may not, so check on it yourself to be sure) the rear ring and pinion would be a straight swap but the front end has a case break which requires a spacer for the ring gear or aftermarket solution with a thicker cut ring gear than the OEM 4.10s from the 4cyl.

 

so how hard is it to put a non-locking diff into a truck with a factory e locker? is it even possible? what can we do to make our diffs more rugged if we cant put that diff on our truck?

 

e-locker v. non ELD use different axle housings. If you want to get a non-locked diff in your ELD housing, you're SOL.

You can replace the whole axle, which is a lowish cost option...used non-locked 8" rears can be gotten for $600 to $1000 depending on circumstances, and they bolt right in...if you've got deep pockets and $$$ to blow, the Currie Rock Jock is a nice option...be ready to shell out $4000ish though just for the part.

If you're gonna keep your e-locker rear, the best solution is to regear to a quality aftermarket gearset (Nitro or Yukon, preferable Nitro) and make sure you have a damn good gear installer. I wouldn't trust anyone but Zuk or East Coast Gear Supply myself.

Frankly though, I'd wait til you break what you have. Factory stuff may last forever. I know guys rolling over 100k miles that still have stock ass ends, and they wheel plenty.

 

I understand your explanation. Thanks! However, since I am no differential-ologist I have no idea what you are referring to in the pics. I need to get my learn on with the different components that make-up a diff.

 

see the "brace" that goes around the gear on the lower diff? that is the non e locker diff and that is the reason it is more rugged and can withstand a harsher beating. the top diff is an e locker diff and does NOT have the brace around the gears and is not as strong, thus breaking like jandrews has (3 times btw) lol.

 

Ah yes (light bulb!) Thanks for clarifying

 

np! if money were no object i would make SAS my truck with dana 60's.

 

Two times (so far).

If it happens a third time, the whole axle is coming out from under the truck and getting replaced with something else.

 

I'd like to know for sure but are the "8.4"s using only two spiders?
As I understand though haven't had em apart to check, the "8.4" has a slightly larger pinion shaft and larger carrier bearings. As well as having those carrier trusses. The mounting pattern is different and I'm not sure our housings have the clearance for the trusses. The trusses keep the carrier bearings/caps from deflecting under load, which would cause a shift in backlash and teeth engagement, which I don't believe wouldn't so much bind as decrease the surface area engaged causing teeth to shear like you see in Jandrews photo.

On some diffs like the 14bolt and ford 9" the pinion has dual tapered rollers on one end and then right passed the helical gears there is a stub that sits in a bearing cast into the 3rd to prevent pinion deflection. That's part of why the 9" is strong. Just fyi.

Here's my e-locker mishap. Side gear opposite of the locking collar broke.
Stripped the remaining engaged splines on the axle shaft.

This was with 4.56 Nitros regeared by ECGS with under a year on it and not many miles. ECGS reuses factory spiders/side gears. Could be a fluke?






I THINK this was damn near the moment it happened.

 

Here's some more info for you guys.

To understand this, one needs to understand why ring and pinion gears usually break. The answer is ring gear deflection. When torque is applied to the pinion gear it causes two things to happen - one good, the other not.

The good thing is that it causes the ring gear to rotate which results in motion to the vehicle. The second and not so good thing is that this torque applies a perpendicular force to the direction of rotation of the ring gear due to the pressure angle and cut of the gears. If it forces the ring gear/carrier to move, this is ring gear deflection.

In normal usage this potential deflection is not an issue because differentials are designed to withstand it. This is why differential carriers have a very heavy ribbing and why carrier bearing preload is especially important. But under high torque and shock loads, ring gear defection does become an issue.

What actually happens is that the defection pushes the ring gear away from the pinion gear and results in the contact patch between the gears to ride up the face of the ring gear tooth. If you look at a side profile of a ring gear tooth, it is triangular shaped, hence thicker at the bottom and it gets progressively thinner at the top i.e a less durable part of the gear.

 

edit: Nevermind :/ too bad

With that said... I haven't seen uhh any, I think?, failures with aftermarket gears aside from mine which was a toyota side gear. I'm wondering what kind of carrier bearing pre-load exists on these factory diffs and wonder about the quality of the ring gears themselves. Wonder if they're the same batch in the "8.4"s?

If the "8.4"s have different batches of ring gears from a different source that could be part of the reason. If toyota is installing the 8" or the "8.4" with little pre-load that could be another reason you're seeing less failures from the "8.4"s or if it's just the 8", the bearing cap trusses could be enough to save those ring gears. Just thinking out loud.