Front Locker wont lock and I need to rebuild my front axle

[Arkansas80]

Hey guys. I am about to do my knuckle job in the next couple of weeks and need to figure out if I can do it even though my front locker wont engage. Honestly, Im not too worried about the front locker working other than for this purpose. I dont think Ill need it with the mild wheeling I do. I checked the harness and it looks great. I put it up on four jack stand and engaged both lockers after putting it into 4lo. Rear actuates quickly but the front just keeps blinking. Your advice and thoughts on getting the front to actuate or information on whether I need it to work for my front knuckle job would be really helpful.

 

[OGBeno]

The front locker does not have to be locked to do a front axle build on the 80 series.

The rear has to be locked to do a rear axle rebuild on a FF rear 80 series.

Good to go. Do the knuckle job, address locker later.

 

[Arkansas80]

Awesome! Thanks for the info Beno!

 

[inkpot]

Did you rotate either front tire when you had it up on stands? Sometimes you need to move it some to align the splines on the axle shafts.

 

[Rifleman]

Arkansas80, if you do a search here on Mud you'll find a ton of threads to help you trouble shoot your front locker problem. When i first got my truck, not only did my front and rear lockers not work, but my center locker didn't work too. One of the best tools i found to help me fix all my lockers problems was a copy of the FSM, if you don't already own one, all i can say, it's some of the best money you'll ever spent if you intend to work on your own truck.

 

[Arkansas80]

Sounds good Rifleman. My 80 came with an FSM so I got lucky on that. I've been looking around and I think the first thing I'll do is take it off and try and lock the differential manually with a screwdriver. The breather hoses on the diffs are totally shot despite it only having 98k miles. I'm going to make sure its not full of water/rusted out.

 

[izzyandsue]

If you need to lock the front and your actuator is not working, you can do it as I did here:

Front factory locker issues

My actuator as installed incorrectly and I had to lock the system to install correctly.

 

[NY2NC]

I'm in the same situation. Front lockers won't lock, and I'm planning on doing the knuckle rebuild this coming weekend. Thanks to Beno, I can still do it. Whew!