Question about pulling front axle shafts on a factory diff locked L.C. (1 Viewer)

[Rifleman]

I'm getting ready to help a friend this coming weekend replace the inter axle oil seals, bearings, and so on, on his 96 LC. Anyway, he was told by his "Toyota expert", that since his truck came with factory diff locks, that they must be locked in first, before we remove the axle shafts. I looked in my factory service manual on my 94 LC, but don't see anything about locking the diff locks first, before we removing the axle shafts. So am i missing something in my service manual, or is his "Toyota expert" right, that his 96 is "different", and we need to engage the diff locks first, before we removing the axle shafts?
http://www.combattourniquet.com/

 

[NLScooby]

I don't see that it is mentioned in the FSM. I recently did this job on my rig and didn't lock the front diff.

 

[jfz80]

I was almost certain the FSM would have specified to lock as well. This expert seems to actually know a thing or two.

I would lock the front before pulling the shafts. It wont hurt and technically you should so that the dog collar and shift fork dont fall out of alignment when the shaft is pulled.

It can be done without... but mostly relying on luck these two items dont misalign. It is possible yet difucult to remove actuator and lift and pry fork and collar back into position but why risk the extra hassle.

 

[landcrshr]

The FSM mentions it in the section on removing the carrier.

 

[b16]

I just did mine a few weeks ago and didn't lock the diff. Diff locks still work too. Shrug.

 

[ajax1]

You should def lock the rear I've done the front both locked and unlocked, if the dog collar dropped you can stick long broom in there to realign

 

[Rifleman]

The FSM mentions it in the section on removing the carrier.

I see that too in my manual, it says to lock in the diffs if we were going to be removing the front differential center section. In our case we are not removing the center section. So if the locks do need to be locked before removing the axles, it should be listed in the section of the manual where it tells you how to remove the axle shafts, not 13 pages later in the manual. I also noticed that in my manual it doesn't tell you to remove the ABS sensor BEFORE you try to pull the axle shaft. If those sensors are left in place you can't remove the axle shafts, plus you'll end up braking the sensors if you try. I'll go ahead and lock the diffs in place before we do this job, like JFZ80 said above, it can't hurt, but it seems that some info is lacking in my manual.

 

[bmwjnky]

When I repacked my birf's I didn't lock my axles but I only did one side at a time. Would be interesting to find a correct answer to this.

 

[Kernal]

AFAIK, if your 80 series has front and rear factory electric locking differentials then the front differential does not have to be locked before you pull the front axle shafts but the rear does.

 

[bicycleagent003]

Another way of looking at this is to ask whether there is any down side to locking the diff's prior to removing the axles. No one seems to think so, thus the prudent thing is to lock them. I did when I pulled my axles. This seems like a debate which only points one way.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Doesn't apply to axle shaft removal. But you literally cannot get the diff out if it isn't locked, it hangs up like crazy. So no worries unless you're removing the diff.

 

[Rifleman]

Project update,we locked in the front diff before we took it apart, so far no problems to report. Next who ever worked on this truck last, must of been in a hurry to get the job done, because they reused some well worn parts. The outer snap rings on both sides were so bent out of shape, that once we took off the grease caps, the snap rings almost fell off on the ground. Next they reused the old lock tabs that lock the large nuts in place. The drivers side lock tab was in bad shape, it only had one lock tab left, all the other tabs were broken off, the other side wasn't much better. Next, it looked like they used a coal chisel, instead of a socket to remover, and install those large nuts, i mean it kind of looked like a metal beaver had been chewing on those nuts. Once we removed the axle shaft, and cleaned away the burf soup, we quickly found the reason for his leak. The last shop who worked on his truck used cheap after market seal on the axle shaft. This definitely WAS NOT work performed by a dealership, i know we all bitch about dealership labor cost. But after seeing the poor lever of workmanship here, by a shop trying to save on cost by reusing worn parts. So if you can afford it, you really do get what you pay for by taking it to the dealer.