What about a gearless locker?

[porkchop]

I am going to be putting in my own gears and I am thinking about locking it up. I don't want to spool it because I drive it to work every day, and I can not afford a detroit. I was looking at a few sites and saw the gearlees locker. I can't really find an info on it.

[Rande]

Randy's ring and pinion has a write up about those gearless lockers.
http://www.ringpinion.com/gear/g0799.html

[blt2krl]

The only thing I know is their only as strong as your case. They should work great for the daily driver.

[DrChop]

Break out the MIG welder and zap them spiders solid. I had an EZ-Locker in the tail end of the '28 for a couple years, until just this past summer it started to make more than the usual popping noises. I found on teardown that the centering pins had all broken, and the gear teeth were worn badly. Out came the carrier, and off came the ring gear. Good thing I saved the old spiders...

With it welded up solid, it scuffs the inside Bogger a little on a tight turn, like going slow in a drive-thru. Normal street driving it's hardly noticeable. And I drive the '28 every day, 6 days a week back and forth to work, 14 mile round trip. I also have taken it out on Sundays for longer highway drives, to help the engine get rid of condensation, and have had no problems with a welded rear, even on icy roads. One just has to remember if you use too much right foot, the tail end goes sideways instead of straight, easily controllable.

Save that locker money for something you can really use, or if you must spend it, put the gearless locker up front and weld the rear solid.

"Been there, wished I'd not ended up with a pretty EZ-Locker $224 paperweight..." :D :mad: :D :mad:

Doc

[porkchop]

So, Doc, you don't think a "spool" or a welded rear end will put to much stress on a daily driver? I can work with the open diffs off road.

[DrChop]

Well, my axles are all original '76 parts in the rear, with the exception of a rear wheel bearing that my buddy ate when he still owned it. Axle came right up and out of the housing end, even ground a flat spot on the backing plate when he slid to a stop. 44 axles are some pretty stout 31 spline pieces, at least in '76. I get pretty hairy offroading it and have'nt broken anything. I've also driven it to car shows in the summer, about 300 miles round trip and it works just fine.

I'm not too worried about longevity. :D

Doc

[River Beast]

Bryant,

I went the full carrier for two reasons... strength and peace of mind.

Remember "STONEY"... the black Wrangler with the Dlack Diamond EXTREME suspension who was upside doen mor than rigth side up...parked in the A/F parking lot?

I talked to him and a others that he knew who blew them out with 33's! :eek:

He and alot of people I talked to said 33's was max for the drop-in style lockers...or something will break. One of his friend wnet through 3 in a year...I didn't want to go thru that...

[trickc]

I'm gonna second everyone else's opinion,don't waste your money on the drop in locker. I've got a detroit e-z locker up front been off road with it twice and on the last trip out it started making ugly noises on extreme stress maneuvers. I suspect the teeth in it are stripping. I'll be running a spool in my next trail rig.

[porkchop]

So my best option is go with the open diffs for now until I can afford the OX locker or the power trax. So far I have not had any real trouble with open diffs. I will keep them for awhile, I will just need to learn to drive better.