E locker Actuator Armature Rebuild

[fjgoober]

Background ('97 elocker axles/diffs under a '78 40 It's a hybrid kind of thing.)
I've searched and have not come across where someone has had the armature go out.

Trying to find a source. The best I've found is http://eurtonelectric.com/ unless there is someone here on mud that is rewinding the armatures.

Several years ago during install under the 40 I took my rear E locker apart earlier and found my magnets were stuck to my armature. You could tell the motor had been overheated by the smell and the burned varnish on the windings. Still.....glued the magnets in and darn thing worked. I have been using it since, probably 2 - 3 years. Went wheeling and it got stuck in locked position. Tore apart the actuator and armature wiring failed between the coils. Need to get it rewound and didn't know if anyone had experienced this before or what their luck was.

During the mean time I will take one off the '94 80.

Interesting note: I spend most of what little time I have on mud over in the 40 forum. However, years ago as each of the youngest two daughters came of age for driving I would search high and low to get them a fzj80 with e-lockers (Last one was a 94 and required a 12 hr round trip road trip with the daughter.). You might say...."What a caring considerate father to buy his daughters an extremely safe and more than competent vehicle." It was for purely selfish reasons!! When they were ready for a newer car I get the 80 back!! Unexpectedly Earlier this year.....Within 3 weeks I received both 80's back. One of life's irony's, want to make a 4 door fj40 out of one and keep the other for an expedition vehicle but right now don't have time to do either.

Thanks for letting me ramble. I would be interested to see what others have done regarding the armature.

 

[landtank]

There is a thread out there where someone rewound his armature. He included what wire and ho0w many wraps.

Me, I just chuck them in the waste bin when they are that bad.

 

[White Stripe]

Look up holmes hobbies, they may do it for you. See what they say.

 

[fjgoober]

Landtank,

It was in your thread.....https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/locker-actuator-rebuild.551069/ a guy came after your write up and described how he rewound his armature. I'm going to send this one off probably to eurton but wanted to see if there was somebody out there doing this already. Hopefully get the 40 back up and running with lockers in the mean time.

Landtank are you still doing rebuilds? You said when the armature is that bad you throw them in the trash. Do you have replacements? Or do you just get a used one?

It took me 3 hours to get the actuator off an 80 that I'm not going to use for awhile (Saving it to make the 4 door fj40 or 4 door fj45 out of or something like that.) The truck came out of Ohio and you can tell it's seen a lot of miles on the salt roads. Had one bolt that would not come out. Rounded off the edges....Worked it, Beat it, cussed it, vice grips etc. Ended up grinding the head off and popping the actuator off. Only problem broke part of the base of the actuator. Not my proudest moment. I guess we'll see if JB Weld will work. In the mean time making one actuator out of two.

Landtank, that's how I ran across your old thread. Like I said in the previous post, it's been years since I've had one apart. Couldn't remember the timing, length of shaft for locked etc. Gears dropped out so had to come back in to see which way the small gear was oriented.

Thanks for the input. Hopefully I'll have lockers in the 40 within 30 minutes.

 

[fjgoober]

I think my 2 capacitors are shot as well. Oh well, I'll Tear it apart in the morning after church. Frustrating!

 

[fjgoober]

White Stripe,

Thanks for the info. ....I may end up calling them.

 

[landtank]

With regular rebuilds of the actuators and keeping them painted you would probably get a life time of service out of them. However everyone waits til there is an issue and by then things have probably degraded to the point of replacing them with new.

The housings are some crappy cast and literally fall apart once the O-rings fail and the actuator gets contaminated. I repaired on a while ago and had to use parts from a failed one. The armature in that unit was in terrible shape and I tossed out the remains of that unit.

 

[Rifleman]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but i have a question, can you still get new actuators from your Toyota dealer? Another question, i know that on the 80 it uses 3 of these actuators, so can you use the armature from one actuator and put it in another actuator, or is the armature custom fit to each actuator?

 

[fjgoober]

I would assume so. I've only tore apart the rear actuator, I've seen the drawings for the front and would have to assume that Toyota would use the same armature for both. I believe you still can get the actuator from the dealer. Very expensive though.

 

[fjgoober]

I thought I would provide an update as someone in the future may run across this same problem of an armature rebuild.

Talked to Rick at Eurton Electric, he estimated it would run $95 to rewind the armature. I thought it was a fair price so I sent it off earlier I the week, two week turnaround, I'll let you know how it works.

Used the actuator off my 80 for the 40. The JB weld seems to be holding, time will tell. Will probably end up fabricating a steel plate to go over the base to ensure the JB weld holds.

 

[blunt]

I found that the mounting surface side plate was cracked on my actuator. If anyone has a spare, I'd gladly pay for it. This is the piece the gear comes out through. Appears to be aluminum but may have to get it welded if I can't find another.

 

[Rifleman]

Blunt, if you can't find one, what about taking it to a local machine shop and seeing if they can make you a new one, by copying your old one.

 

[fjgoober]

Blunt,

I completely snapped off one end on mine. JB Welded it, and so far it has seemed to held up. I've wheeled it pretty hard a couple of weekends.

Thought I would provide an update on the rewind of the armature. Pretty pleased with Eurton Electric out of California. They did it for the quote plus the ride home. I have yet to put it back together. When I do, it will probably go in the 40 and take the other one out of the 40 (JB Welded) and put it back in the 80. See pictures before and after.

 

[scrad]

Sorry to dig up a thread, but in researching where to source parts for actuator rebuilding, i came across this and many other people who seem to have the same problem as me: a hole or a cracked actuator housing. I Came up with a permanent solution if anyone is interested, im considering making a DIY rebuild kit with my billet repair housing. Would someone be willing to post up a pic of it for me?

 

[fjgoober]

Another e locker rotor winding burned up on me this weekend. Never could get it to engage. Tore it apart and it was fill of water? How the heck can that happen? All my vents are high! Then I realized the vent of the elocker actuator I never ran a hose for. It was one of those things I was going to get to but forgot.

Magnets had come unglued (no doubt aa a result of water be in there and freezing ) . Tore elocker out, manually locked rear diff put elocker back together so it would stay locked. One thing I noticed is the repair on the top two bolts had failed (it was jb welded ). Took 30 minutes out of wheeling and built a small bracket that utilizes the top bolt location and ties it in where the top bolt for the protection plate bolts in. Idea was I didn't want the elocker to pivot against the bottom 2 bolts and snap that part of the housing off. Wheeled hard for another 3 days with no issues. Will probably leave the housing this way or get it welded.

Gotta send another rotor to California to get rewound!

 

[fjgoober]

I had to scrape a lot of mud off to get that picture.

 

[bpenn1980]

Little bit of a revival here, but I also had a case of an armature wire breaking. Coincided with a corroded and subsequently broken pin (#2 I believe) inside the molex connector to the frame harness. I thought for sure it was just the connector, but pulled today to R&R with Landtanks kit and found it. Anyway, my locker is beautiful. I mean socal with 150k miles, no water penetration, case in great shape, grease is still soft and squishy. The armature didnt even look burned up, so not sure what happened. Anyway, just throwing it out there for those that come later, this apparently happens occasionally. Will probably just buy a new one tomorrow since I havent spent any money on the truck in quite a long time.