How to prevent your lockers from getting stuck and fix the locker lights from flashin

modman86 · Jul 6, 2016

Allright fellas, after hours of checking everything on the net only to find no resolution, I took on the job myself. Makes you wonder why even techs couldn't figure this out.

OK,the common problems lets start off with the two most common issues.

#1 What I call the "electronic clutch" for the lockers not disengaging or temporariliy engages

#2 The locker light keeps flashing

Do these not fall into the categories of your issues?

Here is your answer to why the problems happen. It's the spring sensor! after sometime of heavy wheelin metal flakes build up into the oil and guess what!? it clogs up the spring plunger and causes continuity inside the sensor and the light will keep flashing. Not only that, when the spring gets clogged, the pin does not return all the way causing the clutch to sit crooked! that leads to parts bending and not seating correctly.

Now this is what you need to do. Jack the rear wheels up from under the diff. Remove the diff cover, remove the bearing clamps on each side but remember to put it back exactly how it came off. This releases the pressure against the plunger on the sensor. Slightly spin the wheels and this will push the diff gear and all towards you to release the plunger and also allows you put back the plunger so the clutch plate lines up with the plunger catch. On vehicles that aren't serviced often you may need to pry the diff out a bit. You need to really soak the plunger in solvent to get all the muck out. When I did mine it had a lot of it inside. Took me several washes and compressed air to blow it out. I used a piece of metal strip to hold the pin open to allow the solvent to get inside to wash the muck out. Now the plunger is butter smooth. I strongly recommend to force some thick grease inside the plunger to help seal it as the warm oil is smooth enough to seep in. After doing this procedure and you want to check often to make sure your oil is clean. Everything is now working like it should. I took care of it before it got any worse. If you keep driving with the light blinking, you're going to make things worse. You're better off just removing the sensor temporarily. DO NOT do any bandaid fixes like using a screwdriver to force to the right, it will be bent from the back from a stuck plunger sensor and you'll end up buying a new locker. Remove the sensor immediately with an 8mm. plug the hole and see if it gets unstuck from there. Start doing the procedure I listed. All this should fix your issue if it has just started giving you problems. If you had drove your vehicle for quite some time like this, you can only hope it is still savable using this procedure.

Tree Frog · Jul 6, 2016

Huh? Okay if you say so. A little late for me now. Hope this trick helps somebody else.

My story goes like this;

2013 JKUR with about 7000 miles on it.

Went over to the dunes, ran around on the dunes for a while. Cant remember for sure how long, lets say about 20 minutes total with the rear locker on. (Sand was like flour, I Kept getting stuck in just 4WD.)
Came off the dunes onto a small access road. Stopped right away and took her out of 4WD and attempted to turn the locker off. Light kept flashing.
Did every crazy ass thing I could to get it to release. Backed up slow, backed up fast, backed up with serpentine turns. Drove over a big parking stop thing kind of hard to try to get it to pop off.
Nope. Lockers were in fact stuck engauged. Stopped in a parking lot and opened the fill hole. Seemed like fluid was overfilled from the factory. (I now know this is the case and have heard this same story a lot from a lot of different guys.)
Just could not get this bitch to release for nothing. No amount of moving the ring over was going to do it. Tried rotating it a bit and kept working the ring. Thought I got it but it was still hung ON.

Drove back to the house, about 80 plus miles with the locker ON as I had did not have anyplace to tear it down. Dealer over there was closed.

Took off the diff cover in my garage and after messing with it a lot I was able to get it to unlock just fine.
Sitting up on jackstands I could turn it on and off without any problems. I did this like 20 freaking times. Seemed fine.

Put cover back on and to it down to a rock garden along the river about 15 minutes from here.
Again, ON-OFF several times just fine. Locked it in and crawled on the rocks for like 5 minutes. Attempted to disengage-again hung up like a big dog.

Put her nose down and kind of off to one side to get into the fill hole with out fluid going all over me. Pressed the ring back and rotated it a bit to be sure the ring was all the way over.
Stupid POS was still stuck ON.
Took it back home and pulled it all apart. The only thing I could not get apart was the one end where the bearing is pressed on. Everything looked good. No metal anyplace. Bottom inside of diff. was spotless.

At this point I said F this. As I had done long arms and coilovers you only know the dealer was going to void my warrenty. Besides I had no faith in the factory lockers at all now.

After a long "what should I do" battle with myself, I decided to get rid of the factory locker and go with an ARB.
I have now just about beat the piss out of this ARB and absolutely no problems.

Still have the front factory E-locker and it is wired in with an ARB switch. I am not even sure if it is working right. Almost never need it. Truthfully only had to turn it on a few times ever.

Plan is to pay off the rig and then go with Dynatrac 60s. of course with ARB's.

modman86 · Jul 11, 2016

Tree Frog said:
Huh? Okay if you say so. A little late for me now. Hope this trick helps somebody else.

My story goes like this;

2013 JKUR with about 7000 miles on it.

Went over to the dunes, ran around on the dunes for a while. Cant remember for sure how long, lets say about 20 minutes total with the rear locker on. (Sand was like flour, I Kept getting stuck in just 4WD.)
Came off the dunes onto a small access road. Stopped right away and took her out of 4WD and attempted to turn the locker off. Light kept flashing.
Did every crazy ass thing I could to get it to release. Backed up slow, backed up fast, backed up with serpentine turns. Drove over a big parking stop thing kind of hard to try to get it to pop off.
Nope. Lockers were in fact stuck engauged. Stopped in a parking lot and opened the fill hole. Seemed like fluid was overfilled from the factory. (I now know this is the case and have heard this same story a lot from a lot of different guys.)
Just could not get this bitch to release for nothing. No amount of moving the ring over was going to do it. Tried rotating it a bit and kept working the ring. Thought I got it but it was still hung ON.

Drove back to the house, about 80 plus miles with the locker ON as I had did not have anyplace to tear it down. Dealer over there was closed.

Took off the diff cover in my garage and after messing with it a lot I was able to get it to unlock just fine.
Sitting up on jackstands I could turn it on and off without any problems. I did this like 20 freaking times. Seemed fine.

Put cover back on and to it down to a rock garden along the river about 15 minutes from here.
Again, ON-OFF several times just fine. Locked it in and crawled on the rocks for like 5 minutes. Attempted to disengage-again hung up like a big dog.

Put her nose down and kind of off to one side to get into the fill hole with out fluid going all over me. Pressed the ring back and rotated it a bit to be sure the ring was all the way over.
Stupid POS was still stuck ON.
Took it back home and pulled it all apart. The only thing I could not get apart was the one end where the bearing is pressed on. Everything looked good. No metal anyplace. Bottom inside of diff. was spotless.

At this point I said F this. As I had done long arms and coilovers you only know the dealer was going to void my warrenty. Besides I had no faith in the factory lockers at all now.

After a long "what should I do" battle with myself, I decided to get rid of the factory locker and go with an ARB.
I have now just about beat the piss out of this ARB and absolutely no problems.

Still have the front factory E-locker and it is wired in with an ARB switch. I am not even sure if it is working right. Almost never need it. Truthfully only had to turn it on a few times ever.

Plan is to pay off the rig and then go with Dynatrac 60s. of course with ARB's.

Since you've already changed the locker to ARB, your problem is solved. Before you changed your lockers, did you ever change your dif fluid before it started going bad on you and added the friction modifier? The tech says there is a clutch inside. Mine is a 15 Rubicon JKU. Having a ton of fluid easily reaches the plunger switch and having to wheel hard, tiny particles get into the switch and into the lockers. Doesn't take much and the locker acts up. If you changed your fluid, did you add friction modifier?. Here's what happend to mine. I cleaned everything up and put new 75-140 fluid synthetic in, switch worked temporarily, lockers locked and unlock fine. Just recently the light started to flicker, just a nick off from working correctly as the light doesn't stay on (flashes). Had to loosen the sensor back (1mm) to make it not flash. Switch has gone far bad enough to revive. I brought it to the dealer after hearing different answers.on the forums. Who's right? don't know, I am going to find out for sure. Since it's under warranty I figured I'd give it a shot. Interesting enough even with all the mods I did and with the 37" on it, they didn't give me any hassle. The dealer themselves actually fixes up Jeeps with lift's and large tires. The head tech says it needs a friction modifier. I never added a friction modifier since my last gear oil change and never had issues til now so this may be the case but however I had tiny metal particles after recent gear oil change and now it's acting up. I'll know tomorrow if the friction modifier is the key.

WJCO · Jul 11, 2016

modman86 said:
Since you've already changed the locker to ARB, your problem is solved. Before you changed your lockers, did you ever change your dif fluid before it started going bad on you and added the friction modifier? The tech says there is a clutch inside. Mine is a 15 Rubicon JKU. Having a ton of fluid easily reaches the plunger switch and having to wheel hard, tiny particles get into the switch and into the lockers. Doesn't take much and the locker acts up. If you changed your fluid, did you add friction modifier?. Here's what happend to mine. I cleaned everything up and put new 75-140 fluid synthetic in, switch worked temporarily, lockers locked and unlock fine. Just recently the light started to flicker, just a nick off from working correctly as the light doesn't stay on (flashes). Had to loosen the sensor back (1mm) to make it not flash. Switch has gone far bad enough to revive. I brought it to the dealer after hearing different answers.on the forums. Who's right? don't know, I am going to find out for sure. Since it's under warranty I figured I'd give it a shot. Interesting enough even with all the mods I did and with the 37" on it, they didn't give me any hassle. The dealer themselves actually fixes up Jeeps with lift's and large tires. The head tech says it needs a friction modifier. I never added a friction modifier since my last gear oil change and never had issues til now so this may be the case but however I had tiny metal particles after recent gear oil change and now it's acting up. I'll know tomorrow if the friction modifier is the key.

I thought you weren't suppose to add anything to this fluid regarding the electronic lockers. Also, I don't see how friction modifier would help with anything regarding a stuck locker. But then again, I don't work at Chrysler Jeep, so maybe the tech has a trick up his sleeve. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me and I thought you weren't suppose to add anything other than the gear oil itself.

Tree Frog · Jul 11, 2016

Not really sure what you are calling a clutch.
There is a set of gears that are pulled in with a big electro magnet.
Then disengaged with small springs.
The side of the gears that move get sort of tilted and then bind up.

Its a well known problem.
Google Rubicon Locker Study, there are some good photos of how it looks inside.
Lots of various forum chatter about the factory lockers sticking.
One guy had a solution by doing some machining to the locker parts.

I am at work on my phone so photos are not avail. to me.

As far as the little switch you are talking about, are you talking about the plunger switch that is in the diff. ?
You can remove it, unplug it, throw it away, and when your locker is stuck engaged, they will still be stuck.
Yes it will stop the light from flashing but thats all.

As WCJO stated everything I have read says NO friction modifiers in the Rubicon lockers.

Would love to know more as I am stuck with this front locker for a while.

nmwranglerx · Jul 11, 2016

I had the stuck engaged locker problem on my last trip to Moab. Frustrating as hell. Fortunately it disengaged by itself before I left the trail, however it was stuck on for about an hour. After that, I didn't trust using it. I did the rest of the trip with only a front locker. When I got home, I changed out my diff fluid and cleaned everything inside the diff real good with brake cleaner. The old gear oil was pretty dark and dirty but I didn't see anything substantial as far as shavings or bits of metal. I put in some synthetic gear oil. On my recent trip to Ouray, I used the rear locker several times and it worked fine. It disengaged quicker than in the past. The problem is I feel like I can't trust it anymore. These lockers are just finicky as hell. When I get the funds I will be replacing with most likely an ARB which is what I have in the front. I hope your remedy continues to work. The more dialogue there is, the better to find a solution. I swapped my rear axle for this Rubi one. I'd be really pissed if I spent the extra money on a rubicon only to find that the lockers aren't reliable.

Exodus 4x4 · Jul 12, 2016

nmwranglerx said:
I had the stuck engaged locker problem on my last trip to Moab. Frustrating as hell. Fortunately it disengaged by itself before I left the trail, however it was stuck on for about an hour. After that, I didn't trust using it. I did the rest of the trip with only a front locker. When I got home, I changed out my diff fluid and cleaned everything inside the diff real good with brake cleaner. The old gear oil was pretty dark and dirty but I didn't see anything substantial as far as shavings or bits of metal. I put in some synthetic gear oil. On my recent trip to Ouray, I used the rear locker several times and it worked fine. It disengaged quicker than in the past. The problem is I feel like I can't trust it anymore. These lockers are just finicky as hell. When I get the funds I will be replacing with most likely an ARB which is what I have in the front. I hope your remedy continues to work. The more dialogue there is, the better to find a solution. I swapped my rear axle for this Rubi one. I'd be really pissed if I spent the extra money on a rubicon only to find that the lockers aren't reliable.

I've noticed now my light is flashing sporadically while driving. First time it happened I pulled over and checked the locker to see if it engaging and disengaging. Everything was fine and so I'm chalking it up to that damn position sensor is faulty. New rear axle is on the short list so I'm not worried about changing it.

I've settled on OX for the next round. No matter what happens to your electric or air, you can still manually switch the locker. Hell you can even engage/disengage manually with a cable.

Wizard · Jul 12, 2016

My Rubi rear locker also played up as described. Cleaned it out a number of times, but the problem seemed to return worse each time. I tried for a warranty claim but the dealer couldn't guarantee that the fault and fix would be covered, and quoted a repair cost of over $4000. I had an ARB locker fitted for less than half that price, and it just works right each and every time.

Tree Frog · Jul 12, 2016

I completely agree with you.
I just could not trust it. When you need a locker , you really kind of need it to work.

As far as if its on or not, I could not tell it was locked up even at speeds up to 70, as long as I was going strait with only slight turns.
At low speed turning around in a parking lot it was the dreaded chirp chirp.

ARB for the win!

How to prevent your lockers from getting stuck and fix the locker lights from flashin

modman86

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Tree Frog

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modman86

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WJCO

Meme King

Tree Frog

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nmwranglerx

Caught the Bug

Exodus 4x4

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Wizard

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Tree Frog

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