rear locker light stays on, locker is disengaged (1 Viewer)

[rdang]

So I was out wheeling on the weekend and engaged my rear locker to pull a buddy out... I could not disengage the rear after this but wheeled the rest of the day with the locker on, engaged the front a couple of times and it came on with no problem... for a good 97% of the day, the switch was in the off position but the rear locker light is on.

Some history... my lockers have recently taken a while to engage, longer than usual. I do exercise them regularly (every 2-3 months) and they have worked flawlessly till now.

I can engage the front (takes a while sometimes) but it works. When I switch the rear off, the light stays on. I know it is still on because when I turn, I can feel/hear the wheels spin together. This is all happening in low 4. I drove home with the rear locker light on and honestly didn't feel like it was engaged.

I tried pulling the diff fuse, while it was out, I tried engaging both lockers (just turning the switch on)... the rear is still solid and the front doesn't come on... with the fuse in, the rear is still on and the front flashes. When I jack up the rear and spin the tires by hand... the light goes off.

I took the 80 around the block, put it in low 4, engaged the lockers and they both came on... I know the rear was on because I could feel/hear it when I turned... I go to disengage the lockers and the same thing happens... the rear locker light stays on. I'm still in low 4 and while taking a turn, I can feel/hear that the rear is still on. Take it out of low 4 and drive for a bit, take a turn and it definitely feels off. Strange... put it back in low 4, engage lockers, front comes on, turn it off, front goes off... rear locker indicator stays on. Again, take a turn and I can feel/hear it is locked. Put in into high 4 again, drive, and it is definitely off... but light is still on.

I haven't had a chance to jack the rear up again and spin the tire to turn the locker off... so I'm not sure if it will turn off again like the first time. I've tried reversing (in high and low), turning, going slow, going fast... nothing seems to turn the light off.

Maybe I have a short somewhere in the electrical? Not even sure how to start diagnosing this one... anyone got some suggestions?

 

[WarDamnEagle]

There is a proximity switch in the locker which makes a connection to ground when the locker is locked. Basically you have hot on one side of the light in the instrument panel. The other side of the light goes back to the switch and from the switch to ground (There is a parallel connection to the locker ECU that tells the locker that the locker is locked).

The switch could be stuck closed or you could have a short to ground in the wire between the instrument panel and the switch (a short to ground on the other side of the switch wouldn't do anything since it's connected to ground anyway).

 

[Gumby]

If it really is disengaging, then the proximity switch is sticky or short to ground either at the chassis or a short between the two wires.

Chances are pretty good it's not actually disengaged or not fully disengaged because the locker actuator is all gummed up. There's a bunch of threads about how to clean the actuator.

 

[Blue Phoenix]

I had this exact problem with my e-locker last year. I can trace my problem back to two things:

Slight wire corrosion at the ground wire IIRC causing the light to stay on and locker off. I drove with it like this for about six months knowing there wasn't an actual problem with the locker.

Another major contributor was the fact that I cut my exhaust off right after the muffler (after the locker light would intermittently go on/off) , which meant the wires were subjected to engine temps that melted the wires (I'm a genius I know).

Anyways, turned down the exhaust, rewired it and everything works perfectly now.

 

[rdang]

You're right Gumby... I just went for a drive and it is clearly not disengaging. I will look into cleaning the actuator and see where that gets me.

If it really is disengaging, then the proximity switch is sticky or short to ground either at the chassis or a short between the two wires.

Chances are pretty good it's not actually disengaged or not fully disengaged because the locker actuator is all gummed up. There's a bunch of threads about how to clean the actuator.

 

[rdang]

Alright... took the cover off and orange water started dripping out... inside was a mess, I just scraped and cleaned it and put everything back together and it works again. I didn't have to take the entire locker off, I just took the cover off (held on by 3 bolts) and took some shop towels, cleaned up the contacts and dried out the water.

I'll have to do a full rebuild when i have some more time. For now, it works.

The front looks a bit different than the rear... I'm sure there's water in there too but it works for now so I will open that one up when I rebuild the rear.

Thanks for the help mud!