All excited about the e-locker & then I noticed this... Back to the Excitement (1 Viewer)

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@Monty231 If I can't make it work tonight, I will probably take you up on that. Are you still in MJ?
 
Alright y'all! I started with the flange donor diff (which happens to be my original one with a missing ring gear tooth). Removed the flange with a 3-arm puller. Easy enough. Took the outer bearing and "pinion spacer" out.
Here's what we have:
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Looks like what Toyota called a "pinion spacer" is actually a crush sleeve. So, I suppose I need a new one to go in the 4.30 diff, right?

@jynx @FJCRAWLER @Monty231 @radioridge @DSLTOY
 
Matt texted me and advised to mark the location and count threads for the location of the pinion nut as mentioned before. Crush sleeve can carefully be reused as long as I don't crush it further. He said to reinstall the nut so that the match marks meet and then torque slightly more.
 
All's well that ends well!
Thanks to everyone for pitching in on the advice and confidence boost that I needed. The flange has been swapped and the diff is about to go in. Y'all ROCK!!

Reference photo before.
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Almost forgot to take a picture of the new seal.
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Good flange installed and nut staked.
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I finished up the 4.30 front diff install last night. Again, a huge thanks goes out to all of you for offering advice on the bent flange. I can't thank you enough.

Lifting that chunk of iron is much easier with a little help from a friend.
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The rearward diff mount is absolute proof that Toyota engineers hate Toyota mechanics. And those bolts are supposed to be torqued to 80 ft/lbs. I had to use my highly calibrated torque elbow on those.

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All done.

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All that's left on my e-locker retrofit is to create and install the wiring harness.

I'll be using the elocker ECU and OEM switch from the 99 4Runner that the axle came out of. 4Runners up to 2000 had an RR Diff Lock indicator in the instrument cluster even if it didn't come with a locker. In 2001 and 2002, there was no option for a locker, so the indicator on the instrument cluster was removed. With some research and help of others that have done this before, I'm going to wire the OEM switch's light to act as the indicator.

In the stock form, an elocker can only be used when the truck is in 4lo. I'll be wiring it so that the locker can be used any time; 2HI 4HI or 4LO.

Some retrofits grounded the speed safety switch so that the locker could possibly be activated at any speed. I will be tapping into the 4WD ECU's speed wire to keep the 5 mph speed safety in play. I don't want any accidental locker activations at 70 mph on I-24.

Here's the wiring diagram I'll be using. Now, where's my wire I ordered, USPS?

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Still waiting for USPS to bring me my wires. :meh:
 
I started working on the wiring harness tonight. I had ordered 25 ft each of several colors of 16 gauge and 18 gauge GXL wire from 4Rcustomwire on e-bay.
It came in yesterday. I wish that I had spent a little more coin and got the TXL for the thinner insulation. I also realized I should have bought 18 ga for the 2 large gauge wires and 20 ga for the rest. Oh well. A little extra copper won't hurt.



I had already determined what color wire would be linked to each wire from the oem pigtails of the e-locker harness, ECU and the RR DIFF Lock switch. (Check the diagram above.) I started with measuring out the wires needed to extend from the ECU to the actuator harness.

I broke out the TrakPower soldering station (thanks RC hobby) and my cheap chinese hot air station and got to soldering the actuator pigtail.









Once I covered the joints with heat shrink (marine grade for the exterior joints), I wrapped the full length of the wire in electrical tape and then added flex tubing to the portion of the harness that would run along the outside of the body for extra protection.

Wrapped wires and flex tube. Looking like an OEM harness.



I'm calling it quits for the night. I'll join the harness to the ECU pigtail and join the ECU to the switch pigtail tomorrow. Getting so much closer to having a locked '01 4Runner.
 
Good work Jamie. You are far more patient than I.
 
The wiring harness is finished now. I hooked it up to the battery to test it out. Check out the video.


All that's left is routing the harness, mounting the ECU, finding a spot for the switch and finalzing the harness connections for 12v power, grounds and the speed sensor wire.
 
Time to bring it to Golden Mountain for a test run.

Nice work,glad to hear and see it turned out good.
 
Time to bring it to Golden Mountain for a test run.

Nice work,glad to hear and see it turned out good.

You know me. I'm willing to try anything.

I was pretty excited when I heard that actuator and saw the indicator light come on for the first time.
 
The locker retrofit is done! I may have torn up some grass in the yard when I tested it out.

Elocker harness connection. My homebrew harness is the small clean loom. It runs up above the gas tank.
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Then through this plate under the rear seat.
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No pictures, but I ran the harness along the body harness on the driver side and into the drivers side kickpanel. The ECU was mounted behind one of the other ECUs above the drivers footwell.

Here's my new "secret button". I relocated the CDL switch as well.
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