newbie needs help (1 Viewer)

I have a 97 fj80 40th anniversary bling bling edition. I bought it with the intention of highway at first, then some sick offroad later. It's later. Very new to this sight, so I haven't looked long. My question is... When I throw her in low range, the dash lights up and says "Diff Lock" and the ABS light comes on. Does this really mean I'm locked on all four wheels, or just front to back? I've noticed some 80's have a seperate switch/button to lock them up. Mine doesn't have that getup. What really am I running? Guess I could just go get stuck in some mud and figure it out, but It's late and I have some more reading to do. Thanks

Just the transfer is locked, as in a conventional 4WD. If you do not have the rotary switch to the left of the steering wheel you do not have differential locks, sorry. :-\

Thanks for the quick reply, that's what I thought but wasn't sure. Does Toyo make a factory kit I can rig up to lock all around? I plan on going big w/ this truck and don't see the point w/out lockers. All else equal I'd rather go toyota. I hear lots of the aftermarket stuff breaks easy. Of course, I'm new to this stuff so I don't know what I'm talking about, but I have some friends/relatives who complain a lot about their broken buggies.

Here's some threads on adding lockers. I searched only 80 section, on the word "donor", for 600 days and 500 posts.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=5664;start=msg44852#msg44852

https://forum.ih8mud.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=4432;start=msg33385#msg33385

Note that adding OEM lockers is not cheap. You would probably be better off to buy another truck and sell yours (sorry but true unless you want to do it for the challenge).

So the OEM looks to be a royal pita. what's the common probs with the arb? air hoses? compressor? or the junk that actually locks the diffs? As I said, I'm new to this, but I'm no stranger to tools or wrenching (motorcycles mostly). Is it a job I could do in my garage? I have a relative who's sick into this stuff, but lives 1000 miles away. I think he has 80 axles in his old 4 runner. does that makes sense?

all of the above, and seal failures internal the the locker itself, I have not been on many rides but seams like every time someone in the group has problems with their ARB's, most can be traced back to user error or poor install, always the air side of things, In my limited experience never have seen one mechanically fail or "grenade"

if installed right ARB's can be reliable, a second back up source of air would also help a lot, it does not take much air volume to shuttle them over, a Co2 bottle will run an ARB all weekend, I friend of mine got to Telico with a dead Co2 bottle borrowed one of those little plug-into-the-cigarette-lighter tire compressors/jump starter tied into his arb's (epoxied a valve stem to the air line), only took a few seconds of pumping with the the compressor to move the locker

beefjerky,
Welcome to the 80 section here on IH8MUD. I see that Riley has helped you find some of the information on lockers. C-Dan is one of our resident experts that has done a swap from open diffs to factory Toyota electric lockers. It can be done.

Several have gone with the ARB's which is the only other viable option for selectable lockers.

Several guys have gone with Aussie, Lockright, and (probably) Detroit lockers. For a dd in varied weather conditions, a selectable locker is the preferred set up.

If you are in the Denver area then give the guys at Slee Offroad a visit and talk to them about the costs and advantages of ARB's vs selectable. They sell and install a lot of ARB's and Robbie can set it up so that you don't have install problems.

-B-