So I just wanted to take a few min and share my experience rebuilding my rear diff locker actuator.
My symptoms:
1. When trying to lock the rear axle my light would just flash no amount of driving in circles or figure 8's would get it to lock.
2. I did not hear the relays click from the locker ecu in the pass foot well area. I thought maybe I had a bad unit so I started looking into it first. I traced all wires from the locker to the ecu and they all had continuity.
3. While playing around with the ECU I noticed that when I would try locking the diffs the lights would come on and off randomly as I moved the ecu around. This led me to checking the contacts they were all good. However the molded connector was not making good contact with the pins of the ecu. To solve this problem I flowed a bit of solder down the pins of the ecu to make them a hair thicker. Now the connector makes good contact and has no more intermittent connection.. However the locker still did not work.
4. I tried applying 9v and 12v directly to the diff locker motor and I got no noise or action from the locker.
5. Time to remove the actuator and see what is going on.. I will place a link to a few pdf's I created from several some threads that helped me out with the entire process. Just print them off and take them to the garage with ya. Anyhow here are some pics of what I found..
No wonder why it did not work..
Look at that bearing cap...
If you need to replace the bearing like I had to a skateboard bearing works great.. Lucky I had some laying around from my days of skateboarding. Now with all the fidgit spinners around these days chances are you have them laying around as well. To access the back side of the bearing you can remove the allen plug pictured below on the top left of the actuator.. Good luck getting the plug out mine was stuck in there quite well.. Lots of pb blaster and soaking helped as well as a breaker bar on the allen key. There is a small plastic washer under this plug to keep the motor shaft where it should be so don't lose it or melt it if you are planning on heating up this area to free up that plug. Once the plug is removed use a long screwdriver or punch to hammer out the old bearing. Install the new one with a 5/8" socket and hammer gently tapping it in the housing.
My magnets were loose one was totally detached and the others needed re-glued. If you can mark the magnets somehow to remind you how they go back in there. I used red and white paint see below..
My motor brushes were toast.. I was a bit scared that these would be hard to replace. However I lucky as I had a pair of new brushes I used to try rebuilding my alternator. I ended up having to get a rebuilt alternator so the brushes were fair game now. I just took the graphite brushes with a file since they were much larger and filed them down to size..I soldered them back instead of crimping them like they were from the factory.
Finally success
All in all it was not as bad as I thought. The hardest part was getting it re-clocked properly. I followed the directions other members posted here which are in the pdf's I am attaching.. The rear still does not lock as easily as the front but from what I understand that is normal. I have to kinda move forward and turn back and forth to get the rear to lock up.. Well let me know if ya have questions and hopefully I can help others out there with the same problem..
Here are the pdf's
actuator - Google Drive
My symptoms:
1. When trying to lock the rear axle my light would just flash no amount of driving in circles or figure 8's would get it to lock.
2. I did not hear the relays click from the locker ecu in the pass foot well area. I thought maybe I had a bad unit so I started looking into it first. I traced all wires from the locker to the ecu and they all had continuity.
3. While playing around with the ECU I noticed that when I would try locking the diffs the lights would come on and off randomly as I moved the ecu around. This led me to checking the contacts they were all good. However the molded connector was not making good contact with the pins of the ecu. To solve this problem I flowed a bit of solder down the pins of the ecu to make them a hair thicker. Now the connector makes good contact and has no more intermittent connection.. However the locker still did not work.
4. I tried applying 9v and 12v directly to the diff locker motor and I got no noise or action from the locker.
5. Time to remove the actuator and see what is going on.. I will place a link to a few pdf's I created from several some threads that helped me out with the entire process. Just print them off and take them to the garage with ya. Anyhow here are some pics of what I found..
No wonder why it did not work..
Look at that bearing cap...
If you need to replace the bearing like I had to a skateboard bearing works great.. Lucky I had some laying around from my days of skateboarding. Now with all the fidgit spinners around these days chances are you have them laying around as well. To access the back side of the bearing you can remove the allen plug pictured below on the top left of the actuator.. Good luck getting the plug out mine was stuck in there quite well.. Lots of pb blaster and soaking helped as well as a breaker bar on the allen key. There is a small plastic washer under this plug to keep the motor shaft where it should be so don't lose it or melt it if you are planning on heating up this area to free up that plug. Once the plug is removed use a long screwdriver or punch to hammer out the old bearing. Install the new one with a 5/8" socket and hammer gently tapping it in the housing.
My magnets were loose one was totally detached and the others needed re-glued. If you can mark the magnets somehow to remind you how they go back in there. I used red and white paint see below..
My motor brushes were toast.. I was a bit scared that these would be hard to replace. However I lucky as I had a pair of new brushes I used to try rebuilding my alternator. I ended up having to get a rebuilt alternator so the brushes were fair game now. I just took the graphite brushes with a file since they were much larger and filed them down to size..I soldered them back instead of crimping them like they were from the factory.
Finally success
All in all it was not as bad as I thought. The hardest part was getting it re-clocked properly. I followed the directions other members posted here which are in the pdf's I am attaching.. The rear still does not lock as easily as the front but from what I understand that is normal. I have to kinda move forward and turn back and forth to get the rear to lock up.. Well let me know if ya have questions and hopefully I can help others out there with the same problem..
Here are the pdf's
actuator - Google Drive
