Hey all, just want to share my progress with my recently designed cable locker conversion. There's been a few people asking me about this so I figure I would just start a thread now despite not being 100% complete yet.
So this all started after acquiring my 97 fzj from my father a couple months ago. One of the first things on my list was getting the e-lockers working as I knew that they did not. This kind of thing is not a huge surprise to anyone who lives in New England. Upon inspection they were both completely corroded and seized, also by observing the internals, I could tell by the factory placement of grease inside that the units had never actually actuated at all in the entire 20+ years on the vehicle. So, faced with hundreds of dollars for replacements and being a fabricator / machinist I decided it would be much more productive to spend considerably more time than replacing the parts and spend more money than the parts cost in coming up with an analog solution of my own.
I had a few expectations for myself as follows:
1 . No more that a single hole needing to be drilled and all parts otherwise mounting to factory available points.
2 . It needs to look pretty cool obviously.
3 . Easy to remove to service and for servicing nearby parts.
4. Something repeatable so that I can make many of and make it available to others. ( Ive done much of this in the past for other vehicles)
5. Make both the front and rear axle units.
6 . Make it work good.
7. Have something that doesn't interfere in the passenger compartment with other controls.
So far I have completed and tested the front setup ( IMO the hardest one to get out of the way) as well as the control system which resides in the cabin.
The front locker assembly looks like this at the differential............Please excuse my crusty, greasy test bed of an fj. Its not the cleanest but is my fav:
As you can see, there is a flanged assembly which replaces the factory unit. It allows the installation of the original gear and uses existing mount points. The cable holder is solid bar stock which is threaded and replaces the factory 3rd member nut in that location and acts as a standoff for the cable. The first draft of this had the cable mounting point welded to the end, this didn't work out because it required shimming the bottom with washers until the end was facing the right way once proper torque was hit...no bueno. The end of the standoff is now threaded and the cable holder can be fitted after the fact in any orientation. (see inset socket bolt)
In this photo you see the unit in the fully LOCKED position. The actuator rod requires exactly 3" of swing to operate and the cable has exactly 3" of travel. This setup doesnt move the internal parts "good enough" into lock and "good enough" out of engagement, it uses ALL of the factory travel for FULL-in and FULL-out. You will also notice that the standoff rod is machined for a 13mm hex to aid in tightening it to the 3rd. It may also be hard to see but the setup is designed to run within 1/8" of the 3rd, it hugs nice and close.
Some may ask why the bottom mount. I chose it because it worked better to be honest. The cable is out of the way and has a much more graceful slack for allowing suspension movement than what i was able to get on the top, and despite first impressions, it is actually pretty well protected by the bottom of the axle and the tie rod. If you are like me and avoid dragging your pinion and tie rod over obstacles, it should be no issue.
Fully unlocked. Not much else to see here. I neglected to take pics of the actuator off the vehicle but I will also add that the unit is o-ring sealed like the factory unit and also features an o-ring seal on the shaft itself for no leakage. I will get pics of the actuator on the bench and also pics of the cable routing.
Here is the cabin control assembly:
I forgot to mention - please forgive a few things that may stand out, this is purely a working prototype and finish units will be a tad better and different, however all these parts pictured will be staying on my truck
So I decided to go with an extruded aluminum rail with sliding levers. Not only is it easier than my other plan but it allows for 3 sliders to operate 3 cables all in one compact linear arrangement. Shown pictured is with just 2, and either cable can be run to either hole depending on which locker you prefer in which position. I also have made the sliders adjustable for wear but well see if that particular feature gets done for produced units. Also this assembly as well as the actuator contain a lot of stainless parts (because i have it laying around) these will probably be mostly replaced with aluminum.
Here it is in the truck:
If you can pry your eyes from the filthy floor you can see that it not only mounts to factory points for the console it also does not interfere with any other controls and also is well away from the legs of any passengers ( tested true ). Quite a few things need minor refinement but as I said this is still a working prototype. At this point all of the major development has been sorted. I know where things need to go and what dimensions it all needs to be.
The following post will show the cable hole as I cant attach more photos in this post.
So this all started after acquiring my 97 fzj from my father a couple months ago. One of the first things on my list was getting the e-lockers working as I knew that they did not. This kind of thing is not a huge surprise to anyone who lives in New England. Upon inspection they were both completely corroded and seized, also by observing the internals, I could tell by the factory placement of grease inside that the units had never actually actuated at all in the entire 20+ years on the vehicle. So, faced with hundreds of dollars for replacements and being a fabricator / machinist I decided it would be much more productive to spend considerably more time than replacing the parts and spend more money than the parts cost in coming up with an analog solution of my own.
I had a few expectations for myself as follows:
1 . No more that a single hole needing to be drilled and all parts otherwise mounting to factory available points.
2 . It needs to look pretty cool obviously.
3 . Easy to remove to service and for servicing nearby parts.
4. Something repeatable so that I can make many of and make it available to others. ( Ive done much of this in the past for other vehicles)
5. Make both the front and rear axle units.
6 . Make it work good.
7. Have something that doesn't interfere in the passenger compartment with other controls.
So far I have completed and tested the front setup ( IMO the hardest one to get out of the way) as well as the control system which resides in the cabin.
The front locker assembly looks like this at the differential............Please excuse my crusty, greasy test bed of an fj. Its not the cleanest but is my fav:
As you can see, there is a flanged assembly which replaces the factory unit. It allows the installation of the original gear and uses existing mount points. The cable holder is solid bar stock which is threaded and replaces the factory 3rd member nut in that location and acts as a standoff for the cable. The first draft of this had the cable mounting point welded to the end, this didn't work out because it required shimming the bottom with washers until the end was facing the right way once proper torque was hit...no bueno. The end of the standoff is now threaded and the cable holder can be fitted after the fact in any orientation. (see inset socket bolt)
In this photo you see the unit in the fully LOCKED position. The actuator rod requires exactly 3" of swing to operate and the cable has exactly 3" of travel. This setup doesnt move the internal parts "good enough" into lock and "good enough" out of engagement, it uses ALL of the factory travel for FULL-in and FULL-out. You will also notice that the standoff rod is machined for a 13mm hex to aid in tightening it to the 3rd. It may also be hard to see but the setup is designed to run within 1/8" of the 3rd, it hugs nice and close.
Some may ask why the bottom mount. I chose it because it worked better to be honest. The cable is out of the way and has a much more graceful slack for allowing suspension movement than what i was able to get on the top, and despite first impressions, it is actually pretty well protected by the bottom of the axle and the tie rod. If you are like me and avoid dragging your pinion and tie rod over obstacles, it should be no issue.
Fully unlocked. Not much else to see here. I neglected to take pics of the actuator off the vehicle but I will also add that the unit is o-ring sealed like the factory unit and also features an o-ring seal on the shaft itself for no leakage. I will get pics of the actuator on the bench and also pics of the cable routing.
Here is the cabin control assembly:
I forgot to mention - please forgive a few things that may stand out, this is purely a working prototype and finish units will be a tad better and different, however all these parts pictured will be staying on my truck
So I decided to go with an extruded aluminum rail with sliding levers. Not only is it easier than my other plan but it allows for 3 sliders to operate 3 cables all in one compact linear arrangement. Shown pictured is with just 2, and either cable can be run to either hole depending on which locker you prefer in which position. I also have made the sliders adjustable for wear but well see if that particular feature gets done for produced units. Also this assembly as well as the actuator contain a lot of stainless parts (because i have it laying around) these will probably be mostly replaced with aluminum.
Here it is in the truck:
If you can pry your eyes from the filthy floor you can see that it not only mounts to factory points for the console it also does not interfere with any other controls and also is well away from the legs of any passengers ( tested true ). Quite a few things need minor refinement but as I said this is still a working prototype. At this point all of the major development has been sorted. I know where things need to go and what dimensions it all needs to be.
The following post will show the cable hole as I cant attach more photos in this post.
