Rubicon Locker Spider Gears

Alex0413

Alex0413

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 26, 2018
Messages
244
Location
Baton Rouge, LA
Finally blew up my front Rubi locker at Hot Springs ORV last weekend, and pulled it out tonight to inspect the damage: spider gears have broken teeth! From some searching I see others have done this and you can't get the gears anymore. Curious if anyone has any laying around? Or if anyone has compared them to normal Dana 44 spider gears or others to match them? Be nice to fix before I drop a grand on an ARB.
 
If you can't find the spider gears consider the less expensive Eaton E-Locker. And they're definitely different than standard Dana 44 spider gears.
 
I did a pretty thorough search for spider gears and new replacements are simply not available, used is all you might be able to find. Places like Davey's Jeep Parts don't sell anything but, occasionally, entire Rubicon Lockers but they're $700 and up which is not worth it. I'd send a message to forum member mrblaine who had a used Rubicon locker at one time that looked like its spiders would have been good. Or go register at www.jeepforum, a dying forum, and send a message to Mudb8 who hordes such parts.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
I did a pretty thorough search for spider gears and new replacements are simply not available, used is all you might be able to find. Places like Davey's Jeep Parts don't sell anything but, occasionally, entire Rubicon Lockers but they're $700 and up which is not worth it. I'd send a message to forum member mrblaine who had a used Rubicon locker at one time that looked like its spiders would have been good. Or go register at www.jeepforum, a dying forum, and send a message to Mudb8 who hordes such parts.
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I don't sell the ones I have. The risk for a short lifespan is too great and I've got too much in them to not get my money back even if I were inclined to part ways with one. So, they stay mostly as spares for the ones I run in a couple of axles.
 
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mrblaine said:
I don't sell the ones I have. The risk for a short lifespan is too great and I've got too much in them to not get my money back even if I were inclined to part ways with one. So, they stay mostly as spares for the ones I run in a couple of axles.
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I don't blame you, it's getting harder and harder to keep these things going Well it looks like I'm going to have two complete Rubicon lockers (broken), 2 actuators, spare locker parts, and a fresh pump from Rubicon Resurrection for sale or trade if you need them.
 
Tob said:
Just out of curiosity, what's your tire size? And what exactly were you doing when it broke?
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I'm running 35's on my TJ. The front Rubi locker only having 2 spider gears compared to 4 on all other aftermarket selectable lockers is the obvious weak link. I'm certainly not going to replace with another Rubi locker. I was rock crawling on 4 fingers at Hot springs ORV, wasn't doing anything crazy, front end was locked and I was burning the tires to try and get over some huge boulders. On the final climb out of the trail, noticed the front wasn't locked and went back to camp to pull the diff cover: found pieces of the spider gears in the bottom.

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Jerry Bransford said:
I did a pretty thorough search for spider gears and new replacements are simply not available, used is all you might be able to find. Places like Davey's Jeep Parts don't sell anything but, occasionally, entire Rubicon Lockers but they're $700 and up which is not worth it. I'd send a message to forum member mrblaine who had a used Rubicon locker at one time that looked like its spiders would have been good. Or go register at www.jeepforum, a dying forum, and send a message to Mudb8 who hordes such parts.
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Thanks for looking into it Jerry! I'm going to most likely go with an OX locker in the front with air actuator. I really like the actuator design and the whole thing can be serviced with just removing the diff cover, as well as the trail tool that can lock the locker if you have compressor failure. I have friends running the OX lockers on Rubi 44's with 37's and they've never managed to injure one!

I don't like that the E Locker un locks when you roll backwards, then re locks when you go forward. With the way I drive (love skinny pedal), I can definitely see that as a potential failure point.
 
I've been very lucky with my Rubicon lockers, the only problem I ever had was close to ten years ago when the actuator diaphragm started leaking air. I am more cautious with them given their reputation but they've still done a lot of very difficult rock crawling trails with 35's. I'm probably past the point of worrying about breaking one in the future but if I did I'd replace it with an Eaton E-Locker.
 
Alex0413 said:
Thanks for looking into it Jerry! I'm going to most likely go with an OX locker in the front with air actuator. I really like the actuator design and the whole thing can be serviced with just removing the diff cover, as well as the trail tool that can lock the locker if you have compressor failure. I have friends running the OX lockers on Rubi 44's with 37's and they've never managed to injure one!
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Having followed Ox lockers from day one, I'd strongly consider Eaton's E-Locker.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
I've been very lucky with my Rubicon lockers, the only problem I ever had was close to ten years ago when the actuator diaphragm started leaking air. I am more cautious with them given their reputation but they've still done a lot of very difficult rock crawling trails with 35's. I'm probably past the point of worrying about breaking one in the future but if I did I'd replace it with an Eaton E-Locker.
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You've gotten your money's worth out of them at this point!

You're not worried about shock loading the E Locker when backing up on an obstacle and going back forward?
 
All the lockers are fine as far as reliability these days from what I've heard. Eaton is having some quality control issues recently. They've shipped a batch of Dana 30 lockers with mismatched splines and they shipped several lunchbox lockers with cracks out of the box. The other options you listed are probably just fine.
 
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