Home Made DIY Land Rover Diff Locker

OK this is what I've been trawling the net for too . The idea of welding the diff and having a free running hub sounds good and cheap! But can you get/make a free-running hub for a 10 spline rear axle easily?? :-/ I must pull out one of mine and see what would be involved...

Here's a nice pictorial of a unimog diff lock:

http://www.ozerdem.com/tr/images/motor/unimog_diff_lock.jpg

My concern here would be having enough room for something like this in a Landy axle...

Mr Noisy said:

Thread revival:

An easy solution would be to have some line locks setup in all 4 corner brake pipes, then you could:

Get stuck
Apply brakes hard.
Lock spinning wheel brakes on.
Move off, and as soon as you get outa your jam release the locked wheels.

This would work like a crude traction control, and could be operated from the dashboard.

Fair bit of faff for a system which would require good timing to work well, but it would work in theory, and probably most times in practice in an axle twist setup.

No good for powering through bog, but neither is traction control!

Cheers.

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called fiddle brakes.
used (or were) on early traillers for navigating tight sections.
as you say, brake a cocked wheel and transfer power to other side.
also, tight corner, steer into it and stamp on brake for rear wheel on inside of corner.
think there were mot issues for road going versions tho!

nrgserv said:

called fiddle brakes.
used (or were) on early traillers for navigating tight sections.
as you say, brake a cocked wheel and transfer power to other side.
also, tight corner, steer into it and stamp on brake for rear wheel on inside of corner.
think there were mot issues for road going versions tho!

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A free version of this on the front wheels of yer vehicle is to adjust your steering lockstops so that you can hold the spinning front wheel tight up against the radius arm and allow the drive to be passed on to the wheel with the traction. You will have to re-adjust again come MOT time though.

A free version of this on the front wheels of yer vehicle is to adjust your steering lockstops so that you can hold the spinning front wheel tight up against the radius arm and allow the drive to be passed on to the wheel with the traction. You will have to re-adjust again come MOT time though.

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Hmm good thinkin! I'll keep that in mind next time I'm in that situation as mine catch at the moment anyway ...

Fiddle brakes...love the name! The idea reminds me of split brakes found on tractors. Used for skid steering though mostly as apposed to diff meddling .

How about the unimog-type setup on splines on the half shaft but operated by a large coil (solenoid) so the centre sliding section is actually the moving part of the solenoid. Then you wouldn't have to make the clever lever setup that they have and there'd be no friction parts if the coil was a snug fit. You'd have a weak return spring to release the lock once power is removed from the coil. Possibly wouldn't work though cos of the amount of steel surrounding the coil and the half shaft within the coil... And it'd be hard to fit it all in...

theres an even better solution com to mind..... do a 6x6 conversion with a lift up rear axle with the diff welded on the normally lifted axle.


ill get my coat

Just fit detroit lockers!

Mr Noisy said:

Just fit detroit lockers!

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I like the idea of detroits. I did hear a rumour that although the salisbury versions were good there had been problems with rover axle lockers and true-tacs. Dunno how much truth there is in it though.

Morning Ratty you on nights again?

I have a detroit in my salisbury axle pretty good. you can drive so much smoother and not have to give the landy lots of abuse to get over quite good terrain. I just gotta take it out and put it in the salisbury on my motor again cos i did an axle swap earlier in the year.

LR did make lockers that were cable operated donkeys ago but they eat shafts because weak series shafts wern't up to it so they never really took off.

oldskool said:

Morning Ratty you on nights again?

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Sorry Oldskool. I didn't see ya there.

Yep am on nights again.

dint some mogs have a cable operated locker?

ratty said:

Sorry Oldskool. I didn't see ya there.

Yep am on nights again.

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Fooking cold init, was at workshop till about 10ish last night sorting some bits on the disco was frozen, trying to change heater illumination bulb with fingers that won't work was fun stoopid little bulbs they are. sorted washers out managed to put wires on wrong pumps :doh: there even coulour coded and i still got em wrong :doh: :doh:

oldskool said:

Fooking cold init, was at workshop till about 10ish last night sorting some bits on the disco was frozen, trying to change heater illumination bulb with fingers that won't work was fun stoopid little bulbs they are. sorted washers out managed to put wires on wrong pumps :doh: there even coulour coded and i still got em wrong :doh: :doh:

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Have ya got a space heater or anything in yer workshop?

It aint too bad if yer outside as the temperature slowly drops. When you get all warm after being inside and then have to step back outside ya notice it. I had a load of them lay down under the car jobs last night just to make sure I was cold AND wet.

If you still have the centre diff lock, there's no reason you can't weld up the front and back diffs and drive on road. I wouldn't as an ever day car but for purely getting to sites I would. You would just have to be very careful with your use of the diff lock as using it in a situation when it's not needed (even off road) would do some serious damage because all the wheels would be locked together and the front wheels turn further than the back ones usually.

and they dont on the same axle when cornering?
interesting tyre wear for this!

For an occasional need to stop a wheel spinning, fiddling brakes do the job, are easy to DIY, and you can keep the expense below £100.

Basically, it's two brake master cylinders installed in the cab and activated manually, plugged in the rear (or front, if you so wish...) brakes so you can manually brake the spinning wheel and transfer the torque to the other one.

Not enough for all-out mud games, but plenty enough for off-roading in normal circumstances.

Give it a thought... As Landyman said, big companies have spent tons of money developing their lockers, and sell them at high prices. They must have found out a couple of things in the process!

I know a trials man in a comp motor that runs a 3.5:1 front diff and 4.11:1 rear diff (no centre diff) and I can't deny the front pulls him out of all the ruts! but I wouldn't do it meself

jai_landrover said:

I know a trials man in a comp motor that runs a 3.5:1 front diff and 4.11:1 rear diff (no centre diff) and I can't deny the front pulls him out of all the ruts! but I wouldn't do it meself

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gettin onto a gaylander principle. all he needs is the vicous coupling!

Kano said:

Basically, it's two brake master cylinders installed in the cab and activated manually, !

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the ones i was thinking of is where the brake pipes are all routed via where the centre seat was, and have a valve for each wheel.
shut the valve for any wheel that still has traction, press brake pedal and the result is any unvalved spinning wheel gets stopped.

of course, you could just go for abs with traction control.
tis the electronic version of this!