rear diff locker will not engage (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 19, 2018
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Location
Birmingham Alabama
Hi this is my first post on mud and also my first 'problem' with my land cruiser.
Its a 1998 100 series and when I go to engage the rear locker the red indicator on the dash just blinks repeatedly never engaging. Have read through the owners manuals many times and no help. When the center diff locks you can hear it but when I try the rear locker no noise and nothing happens but the blinking indicator light. Has anybody else ever had this issue or maybe know what is causing it? Any help would be appreciated thanks!
IMG_4788.JPG
 
Is transfer case in 4Low? It must be in 4Low to engage rear locker
 
Is transfer case in 4Low? It must be in 4Low to engage rear locker
Yes I have had the vehicle on a incline in 4 low with CDL locked and was slipping. So I backed down and could not engage the rear locker in park or neutral while still in 4 low.
 
Try while in drive. That’s when it usually engages... while rolling.
 
Does the actuator sound like it is operating? Have you checked wire connections? The connections are supposed to be sealed but you are talking about a 20 year old rig now.

Tap on the actuator with a hammer.

These freeze up and need to be operated periodically to stay operable (in my experiences anyway with 80s) But a majority of the time its a wire connection or bad relay.
 
Drive in circles on a gravel or dirt road in low range, center diff locked, etc... I got mine to eventually unfreeze after many years of non-use.

Also, check the wires going to the wiring harness as they like to get comfy with the exhaust pipe and melt... Don't ask how I know.
 
Go do some figure 8 donuts in dirt/gravel, in 4 low and see if that engages it. This trick worked for me in my 1999.
 
Go do some figure 8 donuts in dirt/gravel, in 4 low and see if that engages it. This trick worked for me in my 1999.

Same for my '99. I don't think the previous owner ever engaged it. After doing this several times it worked fine for me. If I don't use it for a long time it can take a few seconds longer to engage, but it engages MUCH faster if one wheel is slipping completely.
 
Funny, My 98 was a mall cruiser only had 69k in 2015 but the CDL and Rear locker lock and unlock great. PO must have cycled them

OP I hope you are able to figure this out easily. Keep us posted.
 
Lift the truck, remove the passenger rear wheel and inspect the wiring harness coming from the locker actuator to the front of the vehicle.
The wiring harness rubs againts the frame and damages the wires.
Inspect from the actuator all the way to the front of the muffler.
Mine was bad in two different sections.

Also innspect the actuator, mine was seized, the bi-directional spring was seized to the cover.
i used this opportunity to service it, grease it and change my rear diff fluid.

actuator motor mounting bolts.JPG


difflock_big.jpg
 
Does the actuator sound like it is operating? Have you checked wire connections? The connections are supposed to be sealed but you are talking about a 20 year old rig now.

Tap on the actuator with a hammer.

These freeze up and need to be operated periodically to stay operable (in my experiences anyway with 80s) But a majority of the time its a wire connection or bad relay.
The rear locker makes no noise at all when I turn the diff lock switch. I will get under the cruiser and take a look at the connection points. :bang:
 
The rear locker makes no noise at all when I turn the diff lock switch. I will get under the cruiser and take a look at the connection points. :bang:

I had this exact same issue on the '99 I just bought. Previous owner had never engaged the rear locker. All of the recommendations in this thread are excellent but I was not able to get mine to engage with the driving tips alone. I'm not very confident mechanically (yet) so I didn't want to tinker with this component. I took it to a 4x4 shop and they were able to get it working by disassembling, cleaning with brake cleaner, re-lubing, and reinstalling... basically what diego355 suggested. Cost me a few hundred dollars but I have a working locker now. Very relieved, as when I bought the car I thought I could just replace the locker with an ARB but that is NOT the case; you'd have to replace the whole rear end. Hope you've gotten it working!

FWIW, my center diff lock was also a little spotty at first (again, never engaged), but that one sorted itself out through driving and it now reliably engages and disengages, with the indicator light working correspondingly.

Good luck and thanks for starting the thread, this was very helpful to me!
 
My exact problem on my truck. Guess its common lol
 
Lift the truck, remove the passenger rear wheel and inspect the wiring harness coming from the locker actuator to the front of the vehicle.
The wiring harness rubs againts the frame and damages the wires.
Inspect from the actuator all the way to the front of the muffler.
Mine was bad in two different sections.

Also innspect the actuator, mine was seized, the bi-directional spring was seized to the cover.
i used this opportunity to service it, grease it and change my rear diff fluid.

View attachment 1726978

I can confirm this possibility. I had the same problem with my 1998 FJ100: neither the center nor rear diff would respond to the controls--no sounds, no vibrations, nothing. It turns out that a couple of small muffler holes had allowed enough heat to escape that this wiring harness had partially melted. The harness runs from somewhere up front to the center differential and then to the rear. My ABS lights was also on, and I got wheel speed sensor codes. All those problems disappeared when I replaced the harness (after replacing the muffler, of course).
 
After tearing apart the rear actuator on my 99 my issue ended up being the center diff lock sensor. The center diff lock was engaging (would bind on tight turns) but the sensor that detects this was not being made, so it wouldn't allow the rear locker to go in. I'd have to find the right FSM diagrams again, but it wasn't terribly difficult or expensive to replace the sensor.
 
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Mine had some uh.... corrosion issues. I had to replace it. But I'm in New England YMMV. The cali used one I bought to replace it had the o ring starting to fail though.
 
On this topic, is it possible to pull the bi-directional spring assembly out, fiddle with it, and put it back in without synching it up somehow?

Because, a while back, I was fiddling with mine to see if it'd work (probably never touched in 20 years). I eventually got it to lock, but then it wouldn't unlock. I needed this truck to drive safely, and was kind of desperate to get it unlocked, so I started disassembling what I could to get it to unlock. Popped the cover off the bi-directional spring and just took the damn thing out (looked OK, no major corrosion internally), and drove around a while without it until it finally got unlocked on its own. I put the whole assembly back in just so it won't accidentally engage, and just never touched the rear locker for like a year.
Now I want to see if I can get it working, and afraid I may have messed it up by getting things misaligned. I finally tried turning locker back on, and just getting the blinking. Wondering if I need to synch up that wheel somehow to put proper tension on it, or if just driving around in gravel with switch on for long enough will just spin the motor enough to get it to line up on its own.
 
My 98 has this problem, just blinks. Tried the figure 8's etc to no avail. Instead of examining the wiring first I decided to remove that 3 hole cover and peak inside. Looks like it rolled out of the factory yesterday ! Problem is, like mentioned above I'm not sure how the spring goes back in and my manual isn't much help. Any special install tips here ? Thanks !
 
Buonasera a tutti, sono nuovo in questo forum, abito nella parte italiana della Svizzera, posseggo una Toyota Landcruiser 2001 con cui ho fatto di tutto, l'anno scorso l'ho modificata per fare viaggi nei deserti, per il momento Saudi Arabia, Oman, Giordania, UAE, Tunisia poi in autunno ci avvieremo verso Kenya, Sud Africa, Namibia ecc. Spesso capita che le nostre belle Toyota vanno riparate strada facendo.:wrench::wrench: Posso leggere in inglese ma non lo parlo, ho visto degli argomenti molto interessanti con risposte concrete che ci possono veramente aiutare strada facendo. Spero che google transistor ci aiuti a comunicare, nel frattempo vedro`di imparare l'inglese🧐
grazie a tutti e saluti:steer:

Good evening everyone, I'm new to this forum, I live in the Italian part of Switzerland, I own a Toyota Landcruiser 2001 with which I've done everything, last year I modified it to travel in the deserts, for the moment Saudi Arabia, Oman , Jordan, UAE, Tunisia then in autumn we will go to Kenya, South Africa, Namibia etc. It often happens that our beautiful Toyotas need to be repaired along the way.:wrench::wrench: I can read in English but I don't speak it, I've seen some very interesting topics with concrete answers that can really help us along the way. I hope google transistor help us to communicate, meanwhile I'll try to learn English
 
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