CDL question

[Tennessee80]

Another quick question to the CDL crew... I have my rear drive shaft removed, and still can drive without locking my CDL. I had heard that once you remove a shaft, you must lock your CDL to still be able to drive. Can someone shed some light on this? Hilux believes that my Viscous Coupler might play a role in my truck's ability to drive without the rear shaft and without the CDL engaged...

cheers

 

[Ebag333]

He's right. The VC is engaging. It basically acts as a limited slip.

It's also very bad for it. If it gets too hot, it can weld itself together which means you basically have the center diff permanently locked (regardless of if your CDL is locked or not).

 

[Tennessee80]

so how do you disengage the VC?

cheers

 

[jlg32281]

Lock the center diff. If you don't have a center diff lock switch, you can put it in low so it will automatically lock, pull the fuse on it, then shift it back to high and it will stay locked.

 

[Ebag333]

Or open the t-case and take the VC out.

Of course you wouldn't move then with a drive shaft out and the CDL unlocked....

 

[Hilux]

Lock the center diff. If you don't have a center diff lock switch,

oh yeah we took care of that too...


He's got a CDL switch...

The thing is, I took it for a short ride w/o the rear shaft, and hardly noticed any difference in how it took off with both the CDL locked, and unlocked...

I'm lead to believe with all the posts where n00b's install locking hubs and take off, they describe it as the tranny slipping... I didn't feel that.

We'll get a 2nd opinion on this tomorrow, Alex is going to stop by.

My plan is not to install the rear shaft and Alex and I take turns driving it in and out of CDL lock...

Then I'll throw it in and take the front out while TN80 gets used to the locker a few days...

 

[Hilux]

so how do you disengage the VC?

cheers

Tutorial: removing the viscous coupler (photos)

 

[Hilux]

Another way to find out if your VC is dead is to raise one wheel (tranny in N, transfer case in N). In the N/N position the wheel should move rather freely when you rotate it by hand.

uh oh... At one point in the operation, I needed to get the top 2 14mm DS bolts out... IIR, the rear was jacked up and the two tires and axle shafts were removed at this point...

I thought I could just grab the shaft and turn it, or use the wrench on one of the nuts to turn it... No way...

It turned less than a 1/4 of a turn and was VERY hard, like a hydraulic force was applied to it. At that point I had TN80 jack up a front wheel and turn it so the shaft would turn. IIRC, it was still hard to turn. That's the only way I got the remaining 2 bolts...

 

[Tennessee80]

Might be a project ahead... Need to do the wheel test first...