2006 LJ Front Locker Troubleshooting

[kevin_kss]

New to the forum, need some identification help and what next help.

My 06 LJ failed inspection on some spots so was in the middle of fixing all that and came to a halt so I figured I would look at my front locker that doesnt work. At first inspection the wire is totally off.. Maybe the last owner did that because it didnt work, not sure. I opened it up and tried to hardwire test it to the battery, didnt hear any clicking so I assume something else it wrong. Not sure what front diff I have and what locker this is also to try to figure out what can be done if anything. I assume my little hardwire trick should have made the magnet activate and lock it but since it didnt, is there something else I can look at ?

From one of the images there is a 40563 I think stamped on the axle

Here are some images, and input or advice is appreciated.

 

[jjvw]

Looks like an Eaton E locker. The pair of wires activate the electro magnet. In order for the locker to engage, some amount of differential action between the wheels must occur.

Power the magnet and spin a wheel.

 

[OldBuzzard]

Do what jjvw said. You might have to turn the wheel farther than expected to get it to lock. On mine, the magnet is silent. No click until the mechanism actually moves.

The magnet should be about 6 ohms.

 

[kevin_kss]

anyone have a clue what dana front that is ? I wanted to get new gasket for it, since looks like they made their own.. which worries me a bit..

 

[lBasket]

anyone have a clue what dana front that is ? I wanted to get new gasket for it, since looks like they made their own.. which worries me a bit..

Looks like a 30.

Unless you have a LubeLocker, "making" a gasket with RTV is how it is normally done

 

[Strizzo]

Looks like a dana 30 eaton e locker. I just dropped my jeep off to have one installed. The stator (electromagnet) won't make any noise, it just locks the ring with the ramps to the housing/stator, which pushes those pins in to lock the spider gear. When you put power to the wiring, turn the driveshaft a couple turns and see if the ramp ring pushes the pins down into the housing and locks the diff.

It also looks like you have a long arm kit installed, so maybe someone didn't run the wire down the control arm to allow enough slack for suspension articulation and it tore the plug off the wires.

 

[kevin_kss]

so just to keep you all in the loop. I did apply power to it from battery and spun the wheel and the locker did its job.. it locked. I have no power from the orig line that should feed it. I guess it has some relay in the mix and a fuse. No power to the fuse so something is a miss somewhere but that can wait till later, just good to know the locker actually does work.

 

[kevin_kss]

Follow up Question... so the relay I have in use was bad.. so I replaced with this one.. when I hit the switch to engage, I get nothing. If I go to the relay plug and check voltage I get 11volts on 86 and 87, but when I push in the relay, there is no click that its activating.. if I manually power it works fine..click..click..click.. when on the plug nada... I have to assume something else in this wiring is making the relay not click.. would it be that 87 has power and it should not.. since that should be downstream right? it should only get power when the relay is active on 87 ?? any ideas ?

 

[jjvw]

Follow up Question... so the relay I have in use was bad.. so I replaced with this one.. when I hit the switch to engage, I get nothing. If I go to the relay plug and check voltage I get 11volts on 86 and 87, but when I push in the relay, there is no click that its activating.. if I manually power it works fine..click..click..click.. when on the plug nada... I have to assume something else in this wiring is making the relay not click.. would it be that 87 has power and it should not.. since that should be downstream right? it should only get power when the relay is active on 87 ?? any ideas ?View attachment 597135

This pic is for a light bar, but wiring is the same for a locker.

If you test the empty relay socket...

-pin 30 will always have 12v battery power.

-pin 85 should power on/off matching the dash switch on/off.

-pin 86 goes to ground for the dash switch.

-pin 87 sends power to the locker when pin 85 receives power from the dash switch, then the second wire out of the locker goes to ground.

In-between pins 85->86 is a low power electromagnet controlled by the dash switch. Activating the electromagnet closes the switch in-between pins 30->87 in the relay and sends high power to the locker.

 

[kevin_kss]

Oh boy…my 87 is power all the time, 86 gets power from switch and 30 goes to my locker.. I assume someone with no clue hooked this up originally. unless there’s other odd ways to wire these?

 

[jjvw]

Oh boy…my 87 is power all the time, 86 gets power from switch and 30 goes to my locker.. I assume someone with no clue hooked this up originally. unless there’s other odd ways to wire these?

The pairs of pins can be flip flopped and the relay will function the same. It's no different than wiring a light switch upside down. The circuit is still either open or closed.

Dash switch power needs to pass through 85 and 86 to control the electromagnet. Locker power needs to pass through 30 and 87 for the relay switch controlled by the electromagnet.

If your relay had an 87a pin, then you would choose either 87 (normally open) or 87a (normally closed) depending on if you wanted the dash switch to turn the relay on or off.

 

[kevin_kss]

turns out they had a ground lead hanging off the wire lower that I didnt see. I attached that to ground and it started to work. So I guess it was wired a little strange but still works when the ground is actually grounded.. thanks

 

[jjvw]

turns out they had a ground lead hanging off the wire lower that I didnt see. I attached that to ground and it started to work. So I guess it was wired a little strange but still works when the ground is actually grounded.. thanks

Good trouble shooting!