Rubicon Locker Spider Gears

Jerry Bransford said:
Here's an interesting thread where Blaine discusses the history of the Ox and the two developers' original reason for building it. I met Lazlo, one of those Ox developers, at a 4x4 show when they were first bringing the Ox locker out and he told me the same story. At first I liked their concept too.

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/help-me-understand-the-super-35-kit.12183/#post-377811
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I'm actually not interested in the cable actuator: I want to press a button and be locked.

The appeal for me is there are no internal rotating seals like an ARB or Zip , when those fail you have to pull the locker to replace. The Ox is a simple actuator and if it needs to be serviced you just remove the diff cover, you never have to remove the locker. Installation is much simpler as well: I've installed ARB's before and it's not too complicated, but it's certainly a LOT more time and involvement. The OX drops right in like a Detroit and you set the BL.

Ox has a simple manual actuator: Yes i've been on trails/obstacles that I couldn't drive out of because my crappy Rubicon locker wouldn't engage. I'd rather manually engage in 1 minute then pull line and winch out.

Reliability: are they more reliable? Well I don't think the competition isn't reliable (ARB/ZIP), but I know Ox is just as reliable from my experiences. The actuator is and locker is very simple and robust.
 
Alex0413 said:
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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We've tried to explain to folks that swapping a front into the rear to get rid of the limited slip function is never a good idea.
 
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mrblaine said:
We've tried to explain to folks that swapping a front into the rear to get rid of the limited slip function is never a good idea.
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I never swapped my rear with a front: Broke rear and replaced with Detroit. Broke my front, and now shopping for a replacement selectable. From my experience I don't recommend anyone replacing a broken Rubi locker with another Rubi locker lol Aftermarket options have much better track records.
 
Alex0413 said:
I never swapped my rear with a front: Broke rear and replaced with Detroit. Broke my front, and now shopping for a replacement selectable. From my experience I don't recommend anyone replacing a broken Rubi locker with another Rubi locker lol Aftermarket options have much better track records.
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I was backing up your assessment that the 2 spider design is too weak and therefore should not be used in a rear application. Not that you did, no one should.
 
I've broken two rear Rubi lockers, one stripped locker and one stripped LSD. After the second failed, I went with ARB and never looked back. I'll do the same up front when the time comes. Short of the actuator if they are still available, saving the factory lockers is rarely worth the effort.
 
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jjvw said:
I've broken two rear Rubi lockers, one stripped locker and one stripped LSD. After the second failed, I went with ARB and never looked back. I'll do the same up front when the time comes. Short of the actuator if they are still available, saving the factory lockers is rarely worth the effort.
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Do you have to give up the LSD to replace the locker with an aftermarket one?
 
Tob said:
Do you have to give up the LSD to replace the locker with an aftermarket one?
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Yes. The Rubicon locker and LSD is in the same case. That's the problem. Both need elements to be made smaller to fit inside the case.

It's been about two years since I lost the LSD and I can't really think of a single time where I wished it was still there. The only difference now, is that I might turn on a locker a bit earlier than i might have before.
 
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I’ve read more than one thread on Rubi locker spider gear failing and since I own a 04 Rubicon with 138K’s and from what I can see on the underside the PO defiantly wheeled it. With that said and since the OEM lockers are still installed and operating as designed is it wise to continue to wheel until the locker brakes or replace with quality aftermarket locker prior to braking??

For those that have experience with the Rubi locker spider gear failing is there risk of further damage driving off the trail to the axle’s splines or other internal components? I ask this due to I typically will flat tow or drive to/from the trail from the house to the trail head which could be 50-100+ miles and my pee brain thinks if the spider gear fails is it safe to flat tow home or even drive off the trail on a highway to return to the house.
 
I have a 2004 Rubicon and have experienced failure on both the rear (LSD) and front (Spiders) OEM lockers (at different times). The rear I drove almost 200 miles home with the LSD popping and metal floating everywhere and it tore up the ring and pinion and the carrier bearings, but the axles were OK. The front I just drove approx 1 mile to get off the trail and had no other damage. Having said that I would not worry about them and would not replace them until you have to (which may be never).

When you flat tow the front and rear axles and R&P is spinning even if the transfer is in neutral. If you have a failure and there is metal floating around in the diff, there is a chance that the floating metal would cause additional damage (Ring, Pinion, carrier, carrier bearings, axles, etc...). On the front you could pull the axles and driveshaft, then just reinstall the outer axle shafts (do not install the inner shafts) which would prevent the front from turning. However, not sure what you could do with the rear, possibly clean out as much metal as possible and refill with fresh oil and hope for best. Best bet would be to get a trailer and come back and get the jeep the next day.
 
gasiorv said:
I have a 2004 Rubicon and have experienced failure on both the rear (LSD) and front (Spiders) OEM lockers (at different times). The rear I drove almost 200 miles home with the LSD popping and metal floating everywhere and it tore up the ring and pinion and the carrier bearings, but the axles were OK. The front I just drove approx 1 mile to get off the trail and had no other damage. Having said that I would not worry about them and would not replace them until you have to (which may be never).

When you flat tow the front and rear axles and R&P is spinning even if the transfer is in neutral. If you have a failure and there is metal floating around in the diff, there is a chance that the floating metal would cause additional damage (Ring, Pinion, carrier, carrier bearings, axles, etc...). On the front you could pull the axles and driveshaft, then just reinstall the outer axle shafts (do not install the inner shafts) which would prevent the front from turning. However, not sure what you could do with the rear, possibly clean out as much metal as possible and refill with fresh oil and hope for best. Best bet would be to get a trailer and come back and get the jeep the next
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gasiorv said:
I have a 2004 Rubicon and have experienced failure on both the rear (LSD) and front (Spiders) OEM lockers (at different times). The rear I drove almost 200 miles home with the LSD popping and metal floating everywhere and it tore up the ring and pinion and the carrier bearings, but the axles were OK. The front I just drove approx 1 mile to get off the trail and had no other damage. Having said that I would not worry about them and would not replace them until you have to (which may be never).

When you flat tow the front and rear axles and R&P is spinning even if the transfer is in neutral. If you have a failure and there is metal floating around in the diff, there is a chance that the floating metal would cause additional damage (Ring, Pinion, carrier, carrier bearings, axles, etc...). On the front you could pull the axles and driveshaft, then just reinstall the outer axle shafts (do not install the inner shafts) which would prevent the front from turning. However, not sure what you could do with the rear, possibly clean out as much metal as possible and refill with fresh oil and hope for best. Best bet would be to get a trailer and come back and get the jeep the next day.
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I'll have to look at a trailer as an option but if I go that route I'll have to upgrade my towing attachment due to my truck w/Lance camper combo (has an overhang) loaded is weight limited in the towing department (would require I upgrade to a TorkLift SuperTruss Hitch and the OEM attachment to frame) or just ditch the OEM lockers (if I go this route I would save all the OEM internal parts. I would think someone would be looking for OEM parts) and go with Eaton and re-gear at the same time.
 
One tip I remembered when my LSD was breaking apart. As soon as I was able to, I stuck a few good sized neodymium magnets inside the diff to capture as much of the loose metal as I could, which they did. The week or two I needed to drive this way didn't damage the ring and pinion. In fact, I'm still driving that same R&P two years later.
 
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Who knows when your Rubicon lockers will go out, but they likely will eventually if you wheel hard. Mine broke 3 years apart from each other, and that's a lot of tough wheeling trips on 35's in those three years! When you see a good deal for a locker, pick it up so swap it out when you have time. Detroit in the rear is a cheap and bullet proof replacement, and an OX is what I just put in my front.
 
I decided to wheel with the OEM lockers until they brake.

Curious if anyone has experience with inspecting the front and rear LSD to lead you to believe it would worth while to replace the locker due to some sort of excessive wear that's visible?? Thanks in advance,
 
LarryTJ said:
I decided to wheel with the OEM lockers until they brake.

Curious if anyone has experience with inspecting the front and rear LSD to lead you to believe it would worth while to replace the locker due to some sort of excessive wear that's visible?? Thanks in advance,
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The LSD is only in the rear. It's uses gears, so nothing really to 'wear' out.
Not a problem till it breaks.
 
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