Diff Lock Not Engaging

Evenin all

Read up on stuck diff locks and got to work on the old girl to try and fix my lack of diff lock.

Problem is; diff/hi/low lever moves in all directions really well, no probs with hi and low, pushed over to the left with a nice clunk, not siezed up at all. Had a good look at the linkage and WD40'd the **** out of it. All moves nicely, just not gettting diff lock.

From underneath I can push the lock leaver accross a few extra mill with a screw driver. I did this with one wheel jacked up and turned the wheel with my free hand!!, but still not locking in.

Typically, I don't think its been in lock for years, but looks free enough and even with the extra push, no lock.

I'm guessing I need to take out the pin half way down the linkage and back it off a few turns to get more movement on the lock lever? but this did'nt work doing it with a screw driver so don't want to waste my time, and I don't see why this would need adjustment anyway if not used for years?

Any thoughts

you'll be able to turn the wheel when its jacket up cos of the diff in the axle. im guessin the dash light doesnt come on? i guess if you could get all 4 wheels off the ground and try turnin one of the props if the other one turns as well then ud no diff lock was engaged. someone on here will prob be able to tell u a better method

hav u tried puttin the screwdriver behind the leaver on the tranny and givin it bit or a tap with a hammer?

08mckerp said:

you'll be able to turn the wheel when its jacket up cos of the diff in the axle. im guessin the dash light doesnt come on? i guess if you could get all 4 wheels off the ground and try turnin one of the props if the other one turns as well then ud no diff lock was engaged. someone on here will prob be able to tell u a better method

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if diff lock is working the wheel wont spin

have you tried it in reverse?

jack 1 wheel up and dont have lever in diff-lock, you should be able to spin 1 wheel, now engage diff-lock and if the wheel dosnt spin then diff-lock works. Most landys ive had the difflock light dosnt work

jacking one wheel up wont work surely as ther is a diff inside the axle that will allow it to turn!

bobbler said:

if diff lock is working the wheel wont spin

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what bout the diff in the axle???

havin thort about it that method will work

08mckerp said:

what bout the diff in the axle???

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Pete I thought you spent enough time fixing your front diff last term to have a vague idea how they work!? :doh:

08mckerp said:

what bout the diff in the axle???

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Cheers all,

Yep I'm assuming the diff light is out, hence jacking it up.

Thanks for the missdirection there 08mckerp:doh: and yes I can move the tranny connection a wee bit with a scredriver, but aint hit it yet. Whats confusing me is it all seams to move well, with out stiffness and 'clonks' nicely.

Tried reversing jacked up wheel too, still no lock.

haha sorry bit of a silly moment

Bollox Just got the diff looked at by my local landy workshop. As I suspected, the mechanism moves about just fine, but i ain't engaging the diff lock, so there is something amiss inside the trany

This could get expensive. Any tips on a superficial strip down to look at the internal mechanism? A Buster photo tour would be good here me thinks.

did you try jacking one of the front wheels up? when diff lock is disengaged you should be able to spin the wheel thats jacked up. once its engaged that wheel should not spin a revolution, you will be ablt to rock it back and forth but not spin it. Not very often diff lock fails

Disco2shaun - Yep done that. The fact that diff lock does'nt often fail completely is my problem. I appears to have done just that

In your first post you say the linkage can be moved from underneath, if you are trying to fix the linkage from underneath the landrover you are making the job much harder. Take out the center tunnel thats around the gear levers and you have some room to see and work on the problem. Ignore this if you have already done so.

Slim jim - Cheers dude, looked at this. Nothing wrong with the linkage or movements, all works fine. The problem appears to be internal, I am guessing that whilst the linage and movement of same works fine, it is not 'throwing the engaging rod'? inside the tranny.

The rod which is attached to the external linkage and drops down, vertically, into the casing then connects to a second rod/hook which is pushed left and right to lock in and lock out the transmission yes?

I believe it is the linkage between these two rods that is failing.

Can the separate? Are they circlipped together or something and this clip could have failed? Could the vertical rod have jumped out of the notch in the horzontal rod, perhaps because someone hit it with a hammer:doh: (not me!!)

I think my only next action can be to open up the old girl, but this is more than a tad worrying, its my only vehicle after all and needs to keep mobile.

I never had to look inside the transfer box yet thank God but like you I was told a few years ago that it needed to be replaced by a mechanic. I asked the lads on here what they thought and they suggested that the linkage was the more lightly culprit. I tackled it myself then and it took 4-5 hours maybe more to take the tunnel out because the bolts were badly corroded ( thats properly why the mechanic did'nt want to know) but only a few minutes to adjust and tighten up the linkage. So I had saved myself a good few bob, only what ever the new bolts cost and had the huge satifiction of fixing it myself.
As I said earlier you really need to be working at this from the top of the box.

If anyone is interested. The solution was to replace and properly adjust the diff lock switch on the top of the tranny. So, yes an old, faulty, missadjusted diff lock switch can foul the mechanism. Works a treat now

(Thread resurected in the hope of helping someone searching this in future).