Home Made DIY Land Rover Diff Locker

Hi all

Ive been scouring the net for any types of home made differential locker and i have come up with nothing. So i thought seeing as i have 5 old 10 spline differentials lying around, see if i could do anything useful with them.

The Ideas i found were either changing the diff for a detroit, arb, or KAM one. This seems like a rather expensive option, The other option is welding them up, if you want you use your car on roads that do in fact have corners this doesnt seem like a good idea. So i was thinking more along the lines of a mechanical lock that jams the spider gears.

I will be experimenting on this soon, does anyone else have any input on the matter?

Peter

Now that's a mod I'd be interested in .. 'specially if you could make locked or unlocked. Be interested to see what you do, so don't forget to take plenty pics of the project!!

Shame you're so far away, I'd love to have a crack at doing something like this ...

I will keep you posted on how im doing, ive got some rough ideas at the moment, which im just experimenting with

Peter

big feck off solonoid and do somthing similar to the Kam locker a sliding sleeve that is splined will need the 2 gears that have the splines on need to be made specially with such sleeves as a unit welds will break i think and a solonoid to move a sprung sleeve so when the splines match up it locks both shafts together.

but you need to get rid of the centre pin so a 4 pin would be a better place to start although thats 250 quid before you start. Jai

good on ya for having a go..

but the likes of kam / arb spend fortunes testing and manufacturing there diffs to withstand the pain that they will be given in an offroad situation.and to be reliable on the road..

what may seem easy or a good idea may in reality not work or be unreliable..but you can only try i spose

i will be buying a kam locker when i can afford it..

kam lockers are great not sure about the shafts ashcroft seem superior. But an ashcroft front end is circa 1k without locker so thats nearly 2k with a kam locker serious dosh but it is seriously strong tested and proven

Ive come up with 2 solutions, first is to cut a hole in the diff pan and make a removable cover, then to bolt a strip of steel with part of an old sun gear welded to it to lock the sun gears, The downside of this being that you would have to drain and refill the oil everytime you "locked" it.
The second is easier, Weld up the differential and remove the rear right half shaft and keep it in the back with you, whenever you need it "locked" bolt the half shaft back in, though this will only work on the rear axle.

Maybe a combination of both?

Peter

mabe fit free wheeling rear hubs an idea saves putting the shaft in and out?

although im not keen on the idea,
Have a look see im sure somone like simmonites used to sell a bolt in mechanical locker for standard diffs operated by a cable. They were quite expensive and the diffs shattered as they were weak and died a death because they were neither cheap nor strong enough. But it has been done

this was years and years ago

I like the idea of a solenoid, but I wonder if there's the space for one? Maybe something like a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder/ram, or is that what ARB already do?

Actually I've never seen (properly, so I could really look) a locking diff, only my own broken one!! Just like the idea of a locking diff on the cheap ..

you broke a locking diff? Or a normal one? If you follow Kam lockers arangement its simple but you need a decent lathe and machining equipment

Sorry bit ambiguous, I broke a normal diff ..

Teeth off the crown gear ..

Looking on Kams website now, very interesting ..

can pin the crownwheel worth it but wouldn't bother unless you have the need to drop spinning wheels on the deck competition use really.

Yeah, not for now. Hopefully next year the Disco will become more of a plaything, hence why I want to try 'different' things for when I need them!

Rare I spin wheels that badly, when I broke the diff it was on a lane in France, we heard it go! Bone dry, very small rut, just as we turned into the campsite. One rear wheel lifted up, spun quickly with power on and touched down briefly, but with enough force 'cos the Disco rocked, and broke a tooth. Nothing we could do but continue the holiday, drove round France then home towing the caravan with the noises getting worse. Ended up with three teeth missing and a couple more partially worn away!

No sweat ...

Would it be easier to make a traction control system instead, by grafting some bits from an ABS system and using a PIC to control it?

how do you mean?

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.

ive been looking int the unimog setup, very smart, will post some photos up when i get a chance it seems like a relatively simple mechanism