RTH: Front locker won't unlock. (1 Viewer)

[Layonnn]

Went did a little offroading near my apt and was showing my jeep buddy how easy a hill was with front and rear lockers.

Front locker will not come unlocked now.

Have tried (all in loose terrain):
Driving forward while turning wheel back and forth
Driving in reverse while turning wheel back and forth
Giving it little bits of oomph with the gas pedal while driving forward and turning wheel back and forth.
Putting front end on jack stands in open parking lot, chocking rear tires, allowing both front wheels to spin freely.

Nothing. I managed to get in back into my garage after a whole lot of small turns.

I have read a few threads on this issue. One discusses removing an "actuator plate" and manually pressing a "pin" to unlock it. I have never done any wrenching on this and didn't see any pictures of what to remove, what to press so i am quite lost.

The only threads on this issues either discuss what i already tried or the actuator thing. Does anyone have pictures of this and or better instruction?

 

[Layonnn]

Found this.

Can't really tell what to remove just to get the thing to unlock though.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/446534-locker-wiring-gone-happened-me.html

 

[-Spike-]

Remove the actuator- the thing pictured in that thread. Look in the hole in the diff, you will see a polished rod, the shift fork rides on it. Move the shift fork, probably with a wheel in the air and you might have to turn the wheel to release pressure on the fork. It should move easily. Fix the actuator.

 

[Kernal]

What lights are lit up in the instrument cluster?

 

[Layonnn]

Remove the actuator- the thing pictured in that thread. Look in the hole in the diff, you will see a polished rod, the shift fork rides on it. Move the shift fork, probably with a wheel in the air and you might have to turn the wheel to release pressure on the fork. It should move easily. Fix the actuator.

So you have to remove the whole unit?
I will go try this and see if it works.

What lights are lit up in the instrument cluster?

Only the front diff light

 

[LINUS]

If you haven't yet gotten to pulling the actuator, according to the EWD book on pg 154, the 2 wires that go to the motor are the solid blue one & the blue with green trace/stripe - if you get a wheel off the ground to take off the bind, them hit the actuator with a 9v battery & a couple little jumper wires - could be your actuator just needs a "kick in the butt".

The location you want to do this at is the socket where the locker actuator goes into the wiring harness going up the firewall - the socket is only ~6" from the actuator.

If you go one way & nothing happens, then reverse polarity & see if that works - I seem to recall you can't mess anything up as long as the actuator is in the housing, but if you remove it & try this you can run the travel out too far.

I had to do this same thing when I swapped in my lockers & I was using a used actuator at the time on the rear - it was kind of old & crusty & it took this little trick to get it working.

 

[Layonnn]

actuator/motor assembly is off.

I do not see anything inside of the hole where the gear was that looks like a smooth rod or fork to push on. All i can see is the little gear where the actuator gear touches.

When i have the vehicle in neutral, i can hear the center diff motor, hear the rear diff motor, but i do not hear the front diff motor. It seems like its not actuating at all though i have never had a single problem with it before. It has always operated extremely fast, especially compared to the rear.

Are there any fuses for the diff locks?

Right now i currently have the PS wheel off, actuator assembly pulled off.

 

[LINUS]

actuator/motor assembly is off.


Are there any fuses for the diff locks?

Yes, same page has it tied to a 30 amp fuse in the fuse block, I'm guessing the F11 means the fuse location in the block, but it's tied to the same common line going to the rotary switch & powers the relay box over in the RS kickpanel, so if the fuse was bad you wouldn't have power to the rear locker either.

 

[LINUS]

If the problem is with the relay box (probably not, actuators are normally what give people trouble), then on the harness side the wires that power the actuator are the solid blue & the blue with a red trace/stripe -- the 2 that give signal from the position switch on the harness side are blue w/ black trace & blue with yellow trace/stripe & are the same color on the actuator pigtail too.

Do you have an ohmmeter to just rule out the wiring / rotary switch / locker relay box - by just checking for power at the end of the harness? The harness end wires that are power & ground for the locker are solid blue & a blue w/ a red trace/stripe.

 

[Layonnn]

Fixed.

After removing the actuator, i could see the little piece of metal that had the gear teeth on them. After sliding it to the PS, it unlocked the diff. Then just had to bolt it together. Looks like i will be removing it again soon and cleaning it all up.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Layonnn]

If the problem is with the relay box (probably not, actuators are normally what give people trouble), then on the harness side the wires that power the actuator are the solid blue & the blue with a red trace/stripe -- the 2 that give signal from the position switch on the harness side are blue w/ black trace & blue with yellow trace/stripe & are the same color on the actuator pigtail too.

Do you have an ohmmeter to just rule out the wiring / rotary switch / locker relay box - by just checking for power at the end of the harness? The harness end wires that are power & ground for the locker are solid blue & a blue w/ a red trace/stripe.

I do have a voltmeter ohm meter combo thingy.

I will go through this weekend and hopefully trouble shoot the issue.