Breaking in new rear diff
 

Well, I FINALLY got my rear diff taken care of. I had my ring and pinions crap out now at 170k and wanted to put a locker in anyways. I looked for a couple of months for a used Toyota E Locker but they are just hard to find in 4.56. I had my local yard order it in for me, and they got three of 'em over the course of 3 months, and when they called me to say they were in - they also had recieved 4.30 gears.

Finally I just bit the bullet and ordered from inchworm.com and got a spankin new e-locker. I don't have the tools to do it myself, and my mechanic is doing it today for a very reasonable price. I'm doing the wiring myself though.

My question (finally): Do I need to take any steps to break it in? Stay off the highway for a while? I RARELY tow anything, so I won't be any time soon.

Should I change the diff oil after a couple hundred miles?

Thanks guys.

i just got new gears and a rear locker, the break in period the shop told me was 500 miles, change your gear oil after that, and dont drive above 60mph and allow your diffs to cool down after 30 minutes or 50-60 miles

First couple times you take it out, you want to drive 30 - 50 miles EASY and then let it sit for several hours and TOTALLY cool down, then another 30-50 easy miles and let it cool for several hours. After that, you can drive relatively normal - just don't wail on it.

Use regular dino oil for the breakin. Change it after 500 miles or so. Don't be concerned that the drain plug is going to have A LOT of black gunk on it - it's a coating on the gears. You can then put in synthetic if you like, but I would put dino in again and change it after 5000 miles or so, then go to synthetic.

I hear a lot of people talking about how the e-lockers are able to be engaged and disengaged manually. I will be having the mechanic install it, but I understand that it has to be locked to put it in the housing. How can I unlock it before I drive it home - without having to wire it up?

Have to remove the actuator, flip the yoke with a screwdriver, change the actuator over to unlocked and reinstall.

When I bought my truck with 15,000 miles on it, I found out that my locker wouldn't always disengage right away. Although this is somewhat normal (since the locking mechanism tends to bind when the truck changes direction with it locked, and then needs to unbind before it will unlock), mine unlocks much better after I just started randomly locking and unlocking it while driving down the road over a period of several weeks. I would also lock it before a turn or curve, and then unlock it after.

I guess the locking mechanism needs to break too.

How I broke in my new gears:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ml#GearBreakin

still need some help
 

Well you guys have been really helpful so far... Thanks!

What I've figured out is that the mechanic I had do the mods to my housing misunderstood me a bit. I took the motor off and could see that he did not grind my housing down in the area that the sleeve needs to occupy when it is disengaged. He was under the impression that it only needed to be ground if it wouldn't fit in during installation. So when I picked it up he said it fit fine without the grinding.

I took the motor off, and the good news is that my switch works... well inchworm.com's switch works! I'll just have to take it back to the mechanic and tell him that I paid for the mods but they weren't done. We'll see tomorrow what he says.