E Locker Actuator Rebuild Help

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M

Mr. Notorious

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Hey Guys, I've been wiring up my rear 80series locker in my FJ40. It never worked, even after logic testing the wiring completely. The background of the build is a junkyard 80 series rear with homebrew wiring from reading multiple threads on here.

So I followed a couple threads and decided to take apart the actuator and see if it was a mechanical problem. Here's my findings...

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That was after dumping out plenty of powdered rust. I don't know all the terminology of the parts or how to clean them. I am thinking WD-40 with a toothbrush? Then maybe some fine grit sand paper for the 3 pickup points deep in the housing of the first picture. The worm gear in the first picture deep in the housing that connects to the shaft that goes into the switch housing is completely seized. My assumption is that it should spin freely. The teeth on the gears aren't stripped.

How should I go about cleaning everything? How should I go about taking it part more? What parts need to be marked in their position before taking it apart further?

I've been using the following threads as resources, but just looking for a little more detailed help. Small parts intimidate me like a caveman :doh:

Resource links...

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/17701-rear-locking-dif-assembly-help.html

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/95649-rear-e-locker-actuator-rebuild-pics.html

Any tips or help you guys can offer? Thanks?
 
Wow. You're way beyond what WD-40 can do for you. I would start by soaking the siezed part with AeroKroil, it's the best rust penetrant I've found so far.

KanoLabs.com

It will also take off some of the other surface stuff. Maybe try some SuperClean too.

Good luck.
 
That's what I was afraid of... I was hoping to use products I could find locally at a good auto parts store or home depot. Would love to have it done for the weekend...
 
PB Blaster is also pretty good, not quite as good as Kroil, but much easier to find. You can get it at WalMart and NAPA, for sure.

Sounds goofy, but good ol' Coca-Cola is actually pretty good at eating rust. Soak it in a tub of Coke for a few hours, rinse and see how it is. Repeat until it looks good enough.
 
Can I soak the motor too? Or does that need different care...
 
Also, what needs to be marked before disassembly? I'm guessing the rod that acts as the actuator once I can get the worm gear to move. Doesn't the motors current position matter as well?
 
The rust in that section is probably the least of your problems. You'll need to open up the motor as well as it's probably rusting in there. The section you're showing us in pictures in aluminum. Once you get it all apart, use soap and water with a brush on the aluminum housing. There's a rubber gasket where the actuator rod goes into the housing, so using anything stronger to clean it may be harmful to the gasket. In addition you don't want to hurt the plastic gears with caustic substances.

A good faq for you will be toojayzee's rebuild of his actuator. It's mixed with his tundra motor install thread in the hardcore section. Here...
 
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Awesome. I ended up working on it some more today and did some more reading to figure out the clocking. I got the actuator rod free finally, and got it out. Picked out all the rust in the worm gear before pulling it through the seal in the housing so it wouldn't damage the seal.

In some threads they say to clock the gears, which I follow by figuring out the continuity in the wiring. However in the one thread it said if you don't have the motor installed to turn over the gear assembly, you can turn the gears over by hand by moving the actuator rod. I definitely can't spin that larger driven gear by hand against the torsional springs, even with that assembly outside of the housing with the worm gears installed. If that normal? Should I be able to turn that large gear by hand against the force of the springs? I was trying pretty hard, while trying not to break the large gear.

I hear ya on taking apart the motor assembly, I have an impact screwdriver I'm borrowing tomorrow before I strip out those tiny phillips heads. Then I'll get in there some more and see if there's anything else that's acting up.

I was looking at it and wondering why no one has found a short throw air solenoid with a small rod for linear motion to move the factory actuator rod. Completly by passing all the gears, springs, and electrical motor. I saw the cable stuff and not really into that, I've work on too many OX cable driven lockers before. But I guess fixing the solenoid inside the aluminum casting would be difficult, if it wasn't aluminum a good old welding could probably get it in there :cool:

For reassmbly (when I get there), di-electric grease on all the pickup points and just regular grease for the gears, worm drives, and seals?
 
Just use vice-grips on the screws and buy new ones. I used three screws left over from my motorcycle carb's float bowls.

Do not attempt to twist the large gear against the worm gear by hand. To clock it you'll need to use the 9 volt method that's mentioned in a few threads. I ended up wiring the actuator to a relay and actuating it to get the positioning correct. Wait on that until you see inside the motor.

The rod assembly is spring loaded because the dog gear that locks the differential doesn't always mesh with the opposing one until you turn or spin a wheel. When it's not meshed the spring on the gear keeps constant tension to push the gear into place when the teeth mesh. This allows the motor to spin itself to the stop mark (so it turns off) despite the actuator rod not being fully extended. A solenoid would remain on until it reaches full extension - leaving the possibility that it'll be on a long time & burn itself out.
 
Thanks. I guess I'll just set it up with the starting exposed lengths for locked and unlocked and use that as a starting point when I get it together. Then I'll pop it back in the diff and fine tune it...

I pulled the motor cover off, it was definitely a mess like everyone expected. One or two of the big magnets aren't glued on the cover wall anymore :hillbilly:... I didn't have to worry about the worm gear coming out with the whole motor when I popped off the motor case since it was all seized in there. In fact the entire assembly (I think it's called an armature?) is still stuck in the aluminum housing where the gears are. It's not even spinning so I've been soaking that bearing and worm gear with PB blaster. The lower part of the motor has been propped up and have had PB blaster soaking in it for 8 hours now. I just tried to spin the armature (part with all the wires that spins in the case with the magnets in it and it's still seized up. I even tried to put vise grips on the tip of the armature where it rides inside the case (that the 3 screws held down) and the vise grips couldn't break it free. Is there anywhere better to grab this thing and get it to spin freely? Or another trick to get it out? I know enough not to grab the tightly packed coil windings and try to spin it there. Do I have to pull back those 2 little magnets that ride on the shaft before it will spin? What a mess, I hate small breakable things :doh:
 
Made more progress tonight (you could say). I ended up getting the armature free. By lightly tapping on the bottom of the nylon bushing on the back side of the motors worm gear until it got free. More tapping then it suddenly got more free. Well in an 1/8" of movement, I unfortunately found the armature wasn't being freed from the bearing, but the bearing actually popped out of the housing first. Then being seized to the armature, the bearing hit the small circuitry and definitly caused enough damage to be discouraged about...

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I could have caught it sooner, but in reality there wasn't much I could have done anyways since the 3 Phillips heads holding down the circuit board are covered by the armature's coiled wires anyways.

Not sure what my next step is, pretty bummed out :/

I thought about hitting up radio shack and rebuilding the circuit board, but looking at the condition of the rest of the assembly I'm thinking it may be a waste of time...

So I did a quick search of a drop in selectable option and came up dry. I would love to run an eaton e-locker or an ARB in the current housing I have. Will any drop in third members from Trail Gear fit into an 80 series rear diff? I love their source of high pinion third members. What other options are there? Anyone find a good source for parts for these actuator motors?

I thought of something as a temporary fix, here's a crude sketch of it. Of course it would be always locked. Anything else wrong with this?

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Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I'm trying not to be a redneck here, but dropping $1100 for an arb setup right now isn't all that cool. Wish I could just fix that stupid little motor...
 
I'd remove the circuit board, try to put it back together, clean everything up and re-assemble. You're this far, you may as well keep trying.

The actuators are quite expensive. However you may be able to find a good deal on a used one at a salvage yard.
 
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