I have a 94 4Runner V6 AT, daily driver, and would like to put a locker in the rear axle. I have heard alot of good things about lock rite lockers. I'm just wondering how they perform on road, I don't want to experience much popping/clicking while driving on road.

Thanks, Christopher

 

christopher,

theres a ton of threads w/ very detailed opinions on lock-rites. search lockrite, lock rite, and lock right. some people spell it differently.

bob

 

ill go ahead and chime in..

if you dont want the clicking/popping. save up for an arb air locker or do the e locker swap. it wont pop in straight line but the snap snap snap snap will go on and on when turning the wheels. you lock it around a curve you will chirp the tires.. and if it hasnt unlocked yet. it will unlock itself around a curve and you will think you have dropped your differential out from underneath. thats the loud pop.. doesnt happen often at all just sometimes. the snap is not loud at all either. Its not bad on road manners so just find someone in your area that has one and ride with em.

my .02 cents

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

i have pretty much the same rig... i run a Lock-Right in the rear and love it. the clicking and popping is hardly noticable with the auto.

 

my righ is a dd, I have a lockrite in rear. By FAR the best mod I have done to my truck.
The popping and clicking is present as stated above, however if you don't mind the hum of mud terrain tires, you wont even pay attention to your lockright.

 

does any one have a lock rite for the front ifs diff?

 

Thanks! I will buy one.

 

My experience with the lockrite with FJ40 w/automatic:

Clicks all the time in turns. People stare in parking lots. When I accelerate I feel the rear "shift" slightly to one side, moves back on decel. I changed my spring bushings, but no difference.

Accelerate through a corner will chirp a tire. Being 50+ I don't worry too much. A teenager or early 20's may attract the cops to watch. It is amazing how easy it chirps.

We had one in the front of a 89 4Runner and I was uncomfortable with the difficulty in steering (had power steering, just fought it in tight turns)

 

I ran a detroit EZ locker in the front 7.5 IFS diff for a few years. I broke a CV joint once. I ran it with 33s and 35s. With the trashed out IFS, it was a handful in the snow for sure. On the trail was fine except on sharp turns on rock. (things would bind up)

I suggest saving your money for that SAS instead.

 

A couple of problems with LockRites and other lunchbox style lockers are their lack of strength, if you play "big", and they can and do wear out.
The "teeth" wear down and eventually cause the locker to constantly slip.
LockRites also have harsher road manners than Detroits, though an auto tranny goes a long ways towards taming the "bad" on road manners

Having said that, LockRites are my immediate plans, front and rear, until I do the SAS, as I won't be wheeling the more extreme trails until I do that and go to 35's.





Fred

 

Suprised nobody has mentioned this but get an aussie. By all accounts better road manners, smoother and about unbreakable. Do a search for aussie locker on the net or over at pirate. They are similar to lock-rite's but nobody "in the know" buys lock-rite's anymore

 

where is the best place to look for the aussie locker?

 

I haven't seen anything to convince me a lockrite is better than a detroit EZ is better than an Aussie. The all operate off the same principal, and all have the same drawbacks. I think the aussie's main attraction was that when they first came out they were significantly cheaper.

I had a EZ in the back of a 93 Chevy pickup with an auto. Loved it, put about 60k miles on it before swapping it into a friends 99 pickup with a manual. Definitely more harsh in the manual than the auto. The backlash sucked in the manual as well... but we regeared at the same time as the locker swap so I don't know how much of that came from the locker.

Had something in the back of my 85 Runner for a while. I bought it used, I think it was a Lockrite, but I'm not 100% positive. I didn't like it at all on the road. Lots of jerking when trying to coast through a slow speed turn (like in a parking lot). No complaints off road. Swapped that whole 3rd member into the front of my 88 pickup, still going strong.

Bought the 88 pickup with a lockright in the V6 rearend. Haven't driven the truck on the street a lot (maybe 100 miles), but seems to have much better manners than the one in my 85's 4cyl rearend. Hasn't blown up offroad yet.

Lunchbox lockers main disadvantage is they use the stock carrier, which in a lot of applications is pretty weak. Toyota carriers are strong, so I don't worry about it.

Locker is one of the best and cheapest mods you can do for wheeling, I'd go for it. If you get one and decide you don't like it... you'll more than have gotten your monies worth out of it by the time you save up for an ARB.

Front lockers are hard on the steering. Front lockers suck on the road (only an issue if you live in snow country). If I did a lot of snow stuff I'd get a selectable front. For trail work an auto-locker in the front paired with a twinstick is the way to go. Simple is good, cheap is better. Simple AND cheap is a no brainer.

 

fred,

in my years of toyota forums, i have not read anything like what you posted re strength issues. or is this from your own personal experience?

bob

 

I haven't had one myself wear, however I only ran a LockRite for about 6 months before switching to a Detroit (this was in the front, I already had a rear Detroit).

There have been 2 or 3 people, that I know of, first hand, that have had LockRites "wear out", one in the middle of an "interesting" obstacle on the Miners Revenge trail. We had to winch him out backwards. His was already starting to slip some before the run, and, in retrospect, he shouldn't have gone this time.

There have been several others, that I don't know myself, but people that I do know, know them , that have had them wear out.

The ratchating that happens when they allow a differential action across the axle, over time, wears out the teeth usually by grinding them done so that they no longer "lock".

We wheel the "big" stuff, so maybe that contributes a lot to it.
These were also all in various models of Jeeps, but that in itself shouldn't have anything to do with it..



Here are a couple of photos:

This is out the front window on my Jeep. That's Al in front of me, working his way through the lower part of The Graveyard on Miners:




This is the obstacle that the one person that I mentioned above, lost his rear LockRite, though it wasn't on this trip.
That's Dan spotting me.




If you look over Dans right shoulder, you'll see the darker colored boulder on top of the double ledge that you have to sort of straddle.
Here I am doing just that:




Best,
Fred

 

wow, thats not good. glad i got a factory elocker that *one day* i will install

bob

 

Has anyone ever used any Eaton products? lockers, limited slips, etc?

 

For those of you that have asked or seemed surprised about the Detriots causing damage in the case of u-joint and/or axle breakage and LockRites wearing out, it's nothing new, and it's widely known.
Here's a link on POR regarding lockers and both are mentioned their.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=504856



Best,
Fred