Rear locker not engaging

I believe you have to be in 4lo and engage it in neutral

 

have to be in neutral to engage in to 4lo but not to engage the locker

 

Locker can be engaged at any time in 4lo, at least on 1st gens. I lock mine all the time while I'm cruising along in 4lo, no matter what gear I'm in, as long as youre under 15mph or so. Sometimes it takes a minute to lock in.

OP the locker is notoriously finicky, it takes a few feet of driving (sometimes more) before everything lines up and it locks. It rarely ever locks right when you push the button.

 

OP, go on dirt lot somewhere and try it out. It will engage and you will know it because it will clunk into place.

 

Mine's usually just as hard to unlock. You have to get it just right.

 

My FJ was the same way at first. Although the more you use the locker, the easier it is to activate.

 

With both 4Lo and the locker I've had to rock the truck a little to get them to engage sometimes. 4Lo has a higher chance of engaging 'in place' but the locker I've always had to spin the wheels a little bit, whether that be rolling or slipping a bit, but like others have said, I've only ever needed the locker twice and both situations were because I had a wheel off the ground + low traction on the other so moving the wheels was not hard at all.

 

You all were very correct.

I picked up the Taco from the dealership today and the mechanic after consulting with Toyota support-confirmed what you all wrote. The rear locker may not always immidiately engage and requires moving the truck in a combination of forward/reverse to make it lock.

Mostly this was operator error. This is my first Taco, purchased it last October and haven't messed around with the 4x4 system and locker since then. Attempting to engage the locker on pavement was part of the problem. Lesson learned.

Thanks again TW for all the advice.

 

Ok the picture is a generic one but it is basically the same in our lockers. The couplers or side geasr as sometimes called has to line up in order for it to engage. You can see the shallow teeth in the joining surfaces of them in the pic. If you are driving straight forward or backward this will not happen. If you have one wheel spinning and the other is not then it should lock fairly quickly. However if you are approaching an obstacle driving straight that you need the locker for and have traction on both rear wheels try weaving the steering back and forth. Doing this should give you enough change in wheel speed between the rear wheels to allow the couplers to line up and lock