I cant for the life of me figure out why my rear air locker wont engage. If you open the hood you can see that the dif fluid is being sucked up thru the lines and is getting all over my compressor. I know this has something to do with it. Last weekend someone mentioned that the O ring might not be in correctly. They are fairly new and I cant imagine them being bad but does this ring a bell for anyone?
Mine works but diff. fluid gets into the air line and when you disengage the locker it sprays it out the solenoid vent sometimes. It sounds like this is a common problem and the o-ring could have been bad or not installed correctly or damaged. Thought someone said they changed the o-ring to a better one now.
If you engage the locker, does the compressor turn off and stay off for awhile? This is to check for leaks in the line. Check your differential breather and make sure it is not blocked. This thread should answer any other questions. The leak test with compressor and jacking up rear to test the locker should narrow down your problem.
I cant for the life of me figure out why my rear air locker wont engage. If you open the hood you can see that the dif fluid is being sucked up thru the lines and is getting all over my compressor. I know this has something to do with it. Last weekend someone mentioned that the O ring might not be in correctly. They are fairly new and I cant imagine them being bad but does this ring a bell for anyone?
I had the exact problem with my ARB's in a previous rig. After reading posts here I ordered new o-rings and replaced them. That fixed the problem. The oil coming up through the line, as it was explained to me is that when an o-ring fails, the pumpkin is pressurized and the oil pushes up into the line, and depending on which one fails, sometimes the locker will engage, and sometimes not.
O-rings are cheap, you just have to tear the whole thing apart to replace them.
May I ask something completely stupid? If your axle is vented, why would the pumpkin be pressurized?
And what O-rings are we talking about? I'm getting pretty close to finally assembling my axles with air lockers & figure now is the time to prevent such things from happening. I'm guessing if they could be swapped with Vitons of the same size the problem would be postponed if not eliminated.
Man! looks like parts will be cheap and Labor will be a beeotch! I need that rear locker so I guess i will get started on the repair at some point sooner than later.
May I ask something completely stupid? If your axle is vented, why would the pumpkin be pressurized?
And what O-rings are we talking about? I'm getting pretty close to finally assembling my axles with air lockers & figure now is the time to prevent such things from happening. I'm guessing if they could be swapped with Vitons of the same size the problem would be postponed if not eliminated.
I think the sudden venting action in the line pulls a little oil past the o-rings if they do not seal good. Look in the thread I posted above and you will see a picture of the o-rings I am talking about. I would call ARB before putting it together and ask them and make sure your parts had the new o-rings if they exists. Also check out Kurt's links at the bottom of the thread above. If you look in the ARB manual, it says something about doing a leak test. I would try it before installing the 3rd member.
I have not pulled mine cause I can live with how it works now if it doesn't get worse and still holds pressure good.
NoCal -
Thanks for pointing out your previous thread. Thank God I had Kurt build my 3rds (be a year @ Christmas - damn, I'm slow)! My professional 60 mechanic buddies said "do it yourself, it's easy - or let me", but I know that experience counts big time with R&Ps & I only want to do it once.
Not often you read something here & can say "now I can sleep tonight"! So now all I have to make sure of is the diff vents working.
BTW I particularly liked Kurt's suggestion that you only use the lockers for short periods.
