Center Diff Lock Not Engaging - No Resistance to Body Ground (1 Viewer)

[Nay]

This is for @Andrew Bluemel - his t-case center diff lock is not engaging and he has the Pin 7 mod. Dash light does not come on, and both offroad and on it is clear it’s not engaging.

Here is listening to the actuator motor - sounds exactly like mine.



FSM sez:

This plug is not much fun to find or access, but easier once you realize you need to take off its mount bracket.

The pin 2/3 resistance test passes, but pin 2 or 3 to “body ground” shows nothing.

Question is does “body ground” mean finding a ground point in the frame? We used the control arm mount where there is bare metal and tried a bunch of other spots and nothing, but electrical isn’t my thing and google didn’t have much to say about it.

Any ideas here? I don’t want to start messing with the relay testing since the actuator motor is getting power unless that’s not conclusive and I want to make sure that the resistance to ground test was done properly.

Thanks.

 

[Tools R Us]

The actuator motor sounds like it's working correctly, so an electrical problem is unlikely. The next step is to take the actuator off, run it, see if the output gear turns. Sometimes moisture gets into them, corrodes, binds the output. With the actuator off, can manually turn the gear in the transfer (sometimes have to slightly rotate a driveshaft to line up the splines) confirming lock/unlock, the problem isn't in the transfer.

The how it works explanation from the NCF is posted on page 3 of this thread:
CDL Actuator Fun

If you have the actuator off, might as well go the couple of extra steps and install crawler gears?

 

[Nay]

Thanks, that’s really helpful. I agree on the crawler gears...easy when it’s not my budget .

He did park in a swamp, so corrosion is suspect .

 

[Tools R Us]

Why would he do that to a classic car?!

 

[Nay]

Why would he do that to a classic car?!

See the girl in the passenger seat?

 

[Tools R Us]

See the girl in the passenger seat?

See the mom in the passenger seat?

 

[LINUS]

I had water in my connector despite that little gasket in the socket - some dry time and a liberal smear of lithium grease took care of it.

Andrew - you do know if you’re looking to go fishing in a Toyota, you’re supposed to use a minitruck & mount a 200hp Honda outboard, right?

-Or did you miss Jeremy Clarkson do that on Top Gear?

You just used the wrong model Toyota is all

 

[Andrew Bluemel]

The actuator motor sounds like it's working correctly, so an electrical problem is unlikely. The next step is to take the actuator off, run it, see if the output gear turns. Sometimes moisture gets into them, corrodes, binds the output. With the actuator off, can manually turn the gear in the transfer (sometimes have to slightly rotate a driveshaft to line up the splines) confirming lock/unlock, the problem isn't in the transfer.

The how it works explanation from the NCF is posted on page 3 of this thread:
CDL Actuator Fun

If you have the actuator off, might as well go the couple of extra steps and install crawler gears?

Thanks for the input it would make sense no doubt that everything is coroded in there

Why would he do that to a classic car?!

Dave covered this.... tried it once, got sketched out and backed out, and then she says “so your gonna bitch out?” I didn’t take the high road on this one I was determined

I had water in my connector despite that little gasket in the socket - some dry time and a liberal smear of lithium grease took care of it.

Andrew - you do know if you’re looking to go fishing in a Toyota, you’re supposed to use a minitruck & mount a 200hp Honda outboard, right?

-Or did you miss Jeremy Clarkson do that on Top Gear?

You just used the wrong model Toyota is all

The exterior connectors I have previously pulled and sprayed a lot of electrical cleaner in. They look pretty clean I wish it solved the problem.

And ya, should have just gotten a Nissan, that one made it all the way across the English Channel

 

[Nay]

To be fair the main crossing isn’t very deep and I went through this deeper spot with my snorkel. I started bogging down and engaged both lockers right away and pulled through.

Andrew followed before I realized it and bogged in the same spot. The “gonna bitch out?” happened on the next attempt - where it’s deeper near the rock in the current.

It took about 5 mins to get him out after the engine cut - the bank is bottomless granite pebble and it’s true 80’s aren’t light. My sons are being super profanely helpful here, although they did wade out to hook up the strap so there’s that.



Spit quite a bit of water out of the tailpipe. That was Nov 4th, though, so been some time, but everything was submerged for a few minutes.

 

[Tools R Us]

... granite pebble ...

Decomposed granite "sand" is big fun, until it's not!

 

[Andrew Bluemel]

To be fair the main crossing isn’t very deep and I went through this deeper spot with my snorkel. I started bogging down and engaged both lockers right away and pulled through.

Andrew followed before I realized it and bogged in the same spot. The “gonna bitch out?” happened on the next attempt - where it’s deeper near the rock in the current.

It took about 5 mins to get him out after the engine cut - the bank is bottomless granite pebble and it’s true 80’s aren’t light. My sons are being super profanely helpful here, although they did wade out to hook up the strap so there’s that.



Spit quite a bit of water out of the tailpipe. That was Nov 4th, though, so been some time, but everything was submerged for a few minutes.

Yeah, not my finest hour. Just to clarify though I killed the motor it did not die by itself. Once i knew it was stuck and the water was over the hood I immediately killed it. Since then Diff, Tranny, and T-case fluid has been changed. And I took all the connectors apart under the drivers side footwell and sprayed them with electrical cleaner.

 

[auttiman]

See the mom in the passenger seat?
View attachment 1729101

I never wear seatbelt while in/near water. Had a friend flip upside-down with his head under water and couldn’t get his belt to release. Luckily a friend managed to lift him up enough to release the belt.