[5ierra]

Morning All,

Just wondering if someone would be kind enough to give me a run down on the do's and do not's of airlockers.

The main things I keep getting mixed responses on is:

1). Can I Engage while in motion, will it cause harm to anything?
2). Can I Engage on hard (read non-slip) surfaces? (many places say you get wind up in the drive train, but I imagine this would be from being in 4x4 on road, rather than the diffs being locked. I'm thinking this may be where the confussion comes from?).

Any other Golden rules?

Thank you,
Johnny.

[tanshi]

I lock mine while in motion all the time, but make sure im moving slowly and there is as little load on the diff as possible.

YOu can lock them on high traction surfaces, i wouldnt on road though, not sure why you would want to

[Zook_Fan]

x2, in motion is fine. It's best if you're not turning though as the differential will be operating at different speeds when you try to lock it.

Non slip surfaces are fine and isn't going to cause wind up. Think of all the people that are spooled or welded and drive around on the street.

[5ierra]

Zook_Fan wrote:

x2, in motion is fine. It's best if you're not turning though as the differential will be operating at different speeds when you try to lock it.

Non slip surfaces are fine and isn't going to cause wind up. Think of all the people that are spooled or welded and drive around on the street.

Thats what i was thinking aswell.

I'm just new to lockers, just dont want to destroy them, haha.

Thanks for your help guys.

[DMAC]

Is it ok to reverse with it engaged?
I've heard it is a no no.

[tanshi]

Never had an issue with it. Can't see why it would be bad for them

[J--A--C--K]

Never used an air locker , but I've noticed my auto locker dose not like reverse so well (slow corners like car parks, off road no worries ), so maybe there's more force or pressure but I doubt it's anything to worrie about

[Sco-tie]

Diff gears are made to be stronger in one direction and that would be forwards, if you look at the contact area and thickness of the gears you will see that reverse has a lot less area to purchase on. Locking it in reverse would simply put more pressure on it than if going forwards, same reason as why not to snatch someone in reverse

[fordem]

Let's not get too confused - the ring & pinion, which is the gear set that is cut stronger in one direction, is not actually a part of the differential or the locker - the diff gears are a set of four or six straight cut gears, two side gears and either two or four pinion gears, depending on the diff design - as a general rule, the diff rotates as an assembly so the gears will remain more or less stationary with respect to one another - they will rotate, again with respect to one another, only when the vehicle makes a turn, and the direction of rotation will be dictated by the direction of the turn. They will rotate in one direction for a left turn, and the other for a right, the same thing happens in both forward & reverse directions.

Whilst I'm about it - the ring & pinion is not "made to be stronger" in one direction - that is a side effect of the way the gears are cut - most axles use hypoid cut gears so that the drive shaft can be lower allowing for easier 'packaging', in that the drive shaft intrudes less into the passenger compartment of the vehicle, allowing a lower transmission tunnel - depending on the particular axle you are looking at, some are available in both high & low pinion designs, one of which is stronger going forwards, the other stronger going back - a straight cut bevel gear axle (if you could find one) would have the pinion shaft on the axle centerline and would be equally strong in both directions and probably quite noisy.


On the wind up issue - locking the diff on a "non-slip" surface WILL cause wind up - that's why the differential was invented, and why it's fitted on a few hundred million vehicles.

Long & short of it - don't lock the diff when it's not required, don't lock the diff at any point when the wheels are or maybe rotating at different speeds so not in mid turn, and not when the wheels are spinning with little or no traction - the diff can be locked with the vehicle stationary, travelling in a straight line, travelling backwards or forwards - under those conditions the diff gears are either stationary or moving very slowly with respect to one another

FWIW - there is a 24 page air locker user's manual available on the ARB website.

[Gwagensteve]

There is absolutely no problem with locking the locker with the car in motion. I've been doing this for twenty years. However, avoid what ARB call "crash locking" which is locking the locker whilst one wheel is spinning.

Fordem is 100% on the money (as usual )

Steve.

[Jezza86]

well that's comprehensive. nice work Fordem

[cairns27]

Hey my compressor cuts in for a second every five seconds whilst the diif's are locked.

Is this usual?

Bye

[Sco-tie]

Would normally suggest done kind of leak somewhere

[henno]

Definitely a leak. The real question is where (and just cross your fingers it's just a hose connection somewhere and not where it usually is: inside the diff.)

[Sco-tie]

The more often the compressor comes on the worse the leak. It is normal for the compressor to kick in for a few secs every few mins but not constantly.

[DarkHorse]

Mines been doing it for ages. I just live with it now unless I have another reason to pull the diff apart. As above, it's not an issue as long as the compresor doesn't need to be running continuously - the diff will still still stay locked.

[5ierra]

Thanks Fordem, Very useful information there.

[mrw82]

DMAC wrote:

Is it ok to reverse with it engaged?
I've heard it is a no no.

The air locker can handle it, its not so friendly to CV's though...

[alien]

regarding having it locked on the road - you're putting a heap of stress on your axles... Different if the road is wet and the tyres are able to slip more easily though (get your drift on).