Busted Birf, need a bandaid to keep driving. Hotwire the CDL switch? (1 Viewer)

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Posting on behalf of a friend. He's kinda broke and his 80 is his only transportation. 95, btw.

One of his Birfs sounds like a rock crusher when he reverses.

My thoughts were, we pull the bad birf, pull both drive flanges, pull the front driveshaft, hot wire the CDL.

Basically a 2wd conversion, until we get the parts together for a front end rebuild.

I dug into a HDJ81 EWD, and found the diagram for the CDL switch. I think we just bridge pins 7 and 8 on the CDL plug.

Thoughts?

Screenshot 2022-03-26 102048.png
 
Pull the axle, stuff a rag in and the hole to keep the diff fluid where it should be, leave the drive flange and dust cover alone, press CDL.
 
Pull the axle, stuff a rag in and the hole to keep the diff fluid where it should be, leave the drive flange and dust cover alone, press CDL.
He doesn't have a CDL switch, hence the attached EWD on my post. I'm looking for how to hotwire the CDL.

as far as the rest, wouldn't it be better to pull the drive flanges and drive shaft so that nothing is spinning in the front end?
 
You don't need to hotwire the CDL. The instructions below are courtesy of @BILT4ME that I stole from another post.

1) Place the truck in LO so the CDL and ABS lights come on, then shut off the truck.

2) Then pull the 30A DIFF fuse in the lower right of the fuse block by your knee in the cab.

3) Then shift the transfer case back to HI and start the truck. This will keep the CDL locked until the fuse is placed back in.
 
Here's some food for thought. Other than the broken birfield, is the rest of the truck in good shape? If it happens to be, it might be wise to sell the vehicle and buy something more economical. While prices for everything are high right now, prices for Landcruisers are particularly high and an 80 series is not something I think is wise to use as a daily driver if you are on a limited budget.
 
Here's some food for thought. Other than the broken birfield, is the rest of the truck in good shape? If it happens to be, it might be wise to sell the vehicle and buy something more economical. While prices for everything are high right now, prices for Landcruisers are particularly high and an 80 series is not something I think is wise to use as a daily driver if you are on a limited budget.
It's a complicated story, but he's definitely not selling it. His current situation is temporary and he won't be nearly as dependent on the 80 in another month.

I'm with you though, they aren't cheap to own.
 
You can also take the hazard switch from the dash and connect that to the center diff plug hidden in the dash and use that as a center diff lock switch until it is fixed up. Down side to this method is that it risks never converting the switch back and not having a hazard light if/when needed down the road.
 
It's a complicated story, but he's definitely not selling it. His current situation is temporary and he won't be nearly as dependent on the 80 in another month.

I'm with you though, they aren't cheap to own.
In order to drive it:
1) Pull the front DS
2) Remove both front drive flanges.
3) Engage the CDL as listed above
4) Place a Ziploc bag over the end of each front hub and duct tape it to the hub securely. This is to keep dirt out and grease in. The axle shaft cannot touch the bag or it will chew a hole in it because the hub will turn with the bag and the shaft stays still.
 
You can also take the hazard switch from the dash and connect that to the center diff plug hidden in the dash and use that as a center diff lock switch until it is fixed up. Down side to this method is that it risks never converting the switch back and not having a hazard light if/when needed down the road.
This is what I was gonna say - very easy way to toggle it for now.

My CDL switch is a cheap hazard I picked up from ebay and converted to have the center diff icon.
 
He doesn't have a CDL switch, hence the attached EWD on my post. I'm looking for how to hotwire the CDL.

as far as the rest, wouldn't it be better to pull the drive flanges and drive shaft so that nothing is spinning in the front end?

Yes, absolutely remove birfs and drive shaft. I had a busted birf lock up the entire bin at about 30mph on the trail. When it happened, it yanked the steering hard to that side.
I would not want that to happen at highway speeds with a bus full of nuns beside me.


Put it in low range, make sure the CDL locks, then pull the fuse for the lockers. Can't remember how it is labeled.
Once the fuse is out, you can shift back to high range and the CDL will stay locked


Edit, i see Mr @mingles beat me to it
 
It's a complicated story, but he's definitely not selling it. His current situation is temporary and he won't be nearly as dependent on the 80 in another month.

I'm with you though, they aren't cheap to own.

Not cheap to own, even less affordable to replace after selling to relieve a temporary situation!
 
Still don't understand why you pull the front driveshaft for a busted birfield.
I just removed the broken axle, cleaned things up, plugged the axle hole with a expandable plumbers plug, locked the center and drove 150 miles home.
 
Still don't understand why you pull the front driveshaft for a busted birfield.
I just removed the broken axle, cleaned things up, plugged the axle hole with a expandable plumbers plug, locked the center and drove 150 miles home.
Skill level and time.
 
You don't need to hotwire the CDL. The instructions below are courtesy of @BILT4ME that I stole from another post.

1) Place the truck in LO so the CDL and ABS lights come on, then shut off the truck.

2) Then pull the 30A DIFF fuse in the lower right of the fuse block by your knee in the cab.

3) Then shift the transfer case back to HI and start the truck. This will keep the CDL locked until the fuse is placed back in.
That's pretty clever.
 
1). Install your spare Birfield.
2) drive.
Yeah if you’re going deep enough to pull the birf (and you should for the steering reason) then pop a new one in. @cruiseroutfit has several options IIRC.
 

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