lockers break birfields? (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Feb 9, 2002
Threads
245
Messages
1,197
Location
Utah
my 12/72 fj40 is all stock when it comes to the axles. i'm considering a lock right in the front, and i'm wondering how likely it is i'll break the "weak link".
i have power steering, and hear the said locker (or aussie locker i'm currently investigating) would work quite well, but i don't want to destroy a birf my first time on the trail.
thanks (all you veterns) for helping the newbies.
 
You are much more likely to break stuff with an Open Diff than you are with an Auto Locker, Becouse of the Wheel over spinning, Then making contact with the ground or a high traction surface.
 
You are much more likely to break stuff with an Open Diff than you are with an Auto Locker, Becouse of the Wheel over spinning, Then making contact with the ground or a high traction surface.

I disagree... With the open diff, there can never be as much torque applied to the birfs as their will be with a locker...

example: you wedge a tire into a rock... open diff - as you apply power to try and climb it, the tire with less traction starts to spin, relieving stress.. with a locker - the tire wedged will keep loading up until the tire climbs the rock, or something breaks.
 
You are much more likely to break stuff with an Open Diff than you are with an Auto Locker, Becouse of the Wheel over spinning, Then making contact with the ground or a high traction surface.


Hmmmmmmmmmmm, at the risk of being an a******,

Do you wheel?
Are your comments (thruought this board) based on experience, or ?
 
You are more likely to break birfields with a locker because you are going to get into more situations that put a heavy load on them. You can mimize the chances by turning out your bump stops to cut down on the steering angle a bit, but this sacrafices turning radius.

I have seen people break birfields with an open differential when they have one front spinning wildly and this wheel hits the ground and "TINK". This is totally avoidable. Get off the skinney pedal when your front is spinning.
 
i'm not a rock man. i'm a mud man.
any birfs breaking in the mud?
 
You are more likely to break birfields with a locker because you are going to get into more situations that put a heavy load on them.  You can mimize the chances by turning out your bump stops to cut down on the steering angle a bit, but this sacrafices turning radius.  

I have seen people break birfields with an open differential when they have one front spinning wildly and this wheel hits the ground and "TINK".  This is totally avoidable.  Get off the skinney pedal when your front is spinning.  

I totaly agree here. Its the guys who have the binary (two positions: on, off) throttles in thier rigs who seem to do the majority of the carnage. A light foot and finesse will typically make it home in one piece. A saying I heard often in the sports car racing world is:"you have to be able to finish a race to win a race". :beer:
 
i'm not a rock man.  i'm a mud man.
any birfs breaking in the mud?
Birfs break in anything, you just better watch out for having your wheels spinnin real fast and then quickly getting traction. Also, don't backup under full steering lock with spinning tires in the mud.
 
running a locker in the rear yields little damage in any situation?
what would break if anything, and how often does this happen?

i only hear of birfs breaking, what about rear drivetrain?
 
running a locker in the rear yields little damage in any situation?
what would break if anything, and how often does this happen?

i only hear of birfs breaking, what about rear drivetrain?
You can break rear axles too.
A V8, a locker + binary throttle = Broken axles
heck even a warmed up 2F will snap axles if lean too hard on it. :beer:
 
Rear axles are faaar less likely to break than a birf, especially if you drive with anything resembling sanity with your right foot. A heavy right foot combined with overall driving indescretion can break just about anything. Driving smart avoids a lot of breakage, but I've seen lockrited front birfs break under no throttle at all trying to back up and turn around at the end of a trail...Longfields will solve most of the breaking front birf problems, unless you're handle is spaceghost...:)
 
A 72 will have the coarse spline birfs and IMO is a very bad candidate for a front locker. You will break, and fairly frequently...however, if you insist on installing it and not upgrading to front discs/fine birfs, I have 3 coarse spline birfs I'll sell ya for $100 total, delivered to the lower 48.

Yes, you can break locked, limited, or open. And the right foot is not your friend in any situation. The issue will arise most since once locked, your trail difficulty goes up greatly, and that increases your breakage chances a lot. If you installed lockers and ran the same trails as you did open, you'd likely never break, but would also be bored out of your melon....hehehe
 
i hate to chance it.
i think i'm just going to weld the rear and see where it gets me.
maybe when i'm done with being a poor college student and don't have to worry so much about destroying everything, then i'll go with something up front.
 
i hate to chance it.
i think i'm just going to weld the rear and see where it gets me.
maybe when i'm done with being a poor college student and don't have to worry so much about destroying everything, then i'll go with something up front.
Have you considered a Corolla? :G :G :G :G :G
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom