2004 Tacoma and the rear locker won't engage. The light blinks, but won't go in. With truck off and ignition on, when we push the button to engage locker, we can hear the solenoid (or whatever) activate in the rear, but it won't click in. We tried driving and gently turning left right, tried reverse. Its my son's truck and he did the grey wire mod (I think he called it) so the locker would operate in 4x4 high, but he did that mod a while back and the locker worked fine afterwards....until now. We tried in 4low and 4high.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Could be the Mechanical part is broke or is stuck.

These things do happen

 

Naturally they happen. Its a mechanical device. Was hoping for some insight on what might be wrong.

Let me try again since I've never opened up a differential. Can anyone briefly describe how the locker works? I mean mechanically, how does it operate?

Thanks.

 

In your case I think your better off getting the Factory Service Manual for your year truck.

Then maybe someone can post step by step pictures it is not hard to pull the differential out just time consuming

You have made sure it is not locking in by jacking up the rear wheels??

Might only be the engagement switch is not working correct.

 

You can pull the motor off in place and manual actuate the locker gears with a screwdriver. Maybe it's just full of mud, or some type of debris causing it to bind up.

Your sons wiring may be a culprit as well. Did it come apart?

Driving in a figure 8 pattern will usually get it to unlock. In dirt or gravel! Not on pavement.

 

Mechanically, what's happening is that the actuator uses an electrical motor and some gearing to slide a fork over on the diff. This fork slides a sleeve sideways in the diff that locks the outputs together.

If you take the actuator off (just a few bolts) you should see the fork it engages still on the axle. With one wheel jacked up (obviously, stay safe under there) you should be able to rotate that wheel a little bit and manually engage and disengage the locking mechanism. If that's jammed up and wont budge, you'll probably need to take the diff out and see why.

If that works easily, time to start looking at the actuator to see if it's an electrical issue or a mechanical one with the motors and gears.