I have a buddy that bought a 91 yota 4x4project from me. And he built motor put 35 tires on on it with 5.29 gears and a lunch box locker in rear that someone gave him. Well he run for about 7 months maybe and about 3weeks ago the rear broke the teeth off the ring gear and pinion. Well he rebuilt them last week and was going up driveway and it went pop and jumping! He took it apart the teeth were stripped off the axle and locker and broke teeth off ring gear and pinion and broke the axle I think. Wow what caused all that? Well im getting parts to do gears and lockers in my 00 Tacoma truck and only want to do this one time. I got 4.88 gears with solid crush sleeves and detroit locker for rear and was going to buy a lunchbox locker (Spartan )for front 7. 5 ifs but after hearing his stores and looking on web and see all story on there I don't know now. Im thinking about getting a detroit trutrac for front now ?? What about chromolly axles or changing front cv's?

 

This will be a daily driver with some weekend trails!

 

The Detroit is not an actual locker it is an LSD, that means it doesn't lock up like a locker does, so if you have one wheel off the ground, it will be just like an open diff.

I have not really heard anything bad about lunchbox lockers, although neither the lunchbox or the Detroit are recommended for tires over 33's, I know several people that use them with large tires and have no issues, your buddy's problem could have been that the locker was used to begin with and was possibly already trashed, or his diff was setup incorrectly.

Good luck with your clamshell, I hear those things are a PITA.

 

A Detroit locker is, like a the name, a locker. A Detroit Tru-Trac, is a gear driven LSD. He said a Detroit locker, so its a probably a locker...

I would not worry about locking the front yet. You will be amazed at what a your truck can do with a good set of 33" inch meats and a rear locker.

The clamshell is a PITA. You have to use a "site window" to do a final set up on the R&P. Just getting it out from under the truck can be a head scratcher.

Your friends truck probably failed due to improper setup.