Bent housing or just nature of the lockright beast

HGSR

craigslistaholic
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Location
kings mountain nc
I knew these were noise making, harder on drive train parts type lockers and having a manual transmission can magnify the noises and you feel a lot more if the backlash in the locker itself. I typically drive like Iam 80 years old anyway (on the street), I don't snatch second or just dump it to smoke the tires etc etc. so with my driving style discrption out of the way I'll proceed.

It makes its usual click click click with the occasional louder click/pop. I figure its in between teeth and the extra torque seats it's a little more harsh. The thing that keeps getting my attention it's the shake, jerk thing I get while I make a turn into a street or driveway. Kinda like Iam a new driver with a manual trans type jerk. Even if it starts doing the "huck-a-buck" pushing the clutch in won't stop it. Another odd thing I noticed Saturday was the truck feels like it wasn't to torque to the right when I take off from a stop, the rear of the truck wants to try to come around type feeling. I was in a decent hill at a red light and it was enought for to think I had loose u bolts or I had a broken center pin. Bolts are tight and I don't see any evidence that the pin is broken. Feels like your driving a welded diff and one gear has broken loose and the power is only going to one tire or how a go kart with out live axle feels on the street. I thought well maybe it's the tires, fresh deep tread and the lugs are giving and it just gives it a loose feeling...

Well I started Google searching this morning about lockright noise common and what may be uncommon. I ran across a few posts that brought up having a bent housing will cause these things to act crazy and some discribed things similar to what Iam feeling while others discribed the same but claimed it to be normal . It talked about tire wear being a good sign and the axles being hard to pull from the housing or hard to put back in the housing. Well I haven't ever noticed a strange wear pattern on the rear tires and I look at my tires a lot. When I swapped the third for the 4.56's and lockright the axles didn't put up any type of fight coming or going. I haven't had time to take it for a actual alignment yet for a half dozen other reasons but that will happen asap.

Anyone had this experience or anything similar? I'll also add in the clutch pedal pressure seems to feel deferent at times and if your at a red light with the truck in neutral with the clutch out I can feel the truck (drivetrain) bump forward when I put it back in gear to leave from a stop and at times I feel like it's sloppy shifting to second and third but I have been blaming that on a combination of the thick rubber floor mat finding it's way up under the clutch pedal and the goofy ass trip over everything square toe boots I wear. ( I don't wear them for fashion or becuse they are the style but becuse they were a crazy good eBay deal and have great toe room for my Fred flintstone feet, I actually hate these and will never buy more, also I will add in my pants are never ever ever tucked in my boots!) PO claims to have just done the clutch right before I bought it and the clutch master looks new but the fluid looks awful. Going to bleed the system today also going to chalk up the tires, roll it around on the driveway to see if the chalk wears off or shows any strange patterns. I have two bare wheels I could bolt up and try to get a measurement front to back, top and bottom. Kinda like checking the toe on the front. Maybe it's just normal and my mind loves to play the did you hear that? What was that noise game...

Thanks for any help and sorry it's such a long post but I figured any and all details would be important
 
Tires are inherently NOT true to size nor consistent in size from one to the next, if one tire is slightly over inflated or under inflated it can make a huge difference in the way the axle pulls when locked, which could be part of the problem,

Put a mark on tire, start with said mark at lowest point, mark pavement at that point, roll tire one revolution, mark pavement again, measure distance. Do same for other side

while and inch may not seem like a lot, if locked together the difference can cause one side to wrap and load in a short distance then cause he locker to "release" which will toss you.
 
Ah! roll out was something I hadn't considered. Tire pressure should be with in a pound or two between all four tires. Last I checked anyway but that was week before last after I aired them back up. I'll check that today to.

It's a 98 tacoma, I managaed to leave out really important info lol.
 
This is exactly how my jeep drove with an 8.8 with a full case Detroit. Even with tire pressure set to identical tire circumference, rolling radius etc. Still did this.

A few other rigs I've ridden in with "automatic" lockers both full case and lunchbox and manual transmission all drove this way.

It seems to not be evident with an automatic and twice as bad with a manual.

For every reason you listed above, I prefer a rear spool, selectable locker, or limited slip over a locker with a manual trans.

First time it did it to me, I thought I broke an axle shaft and nearly took out the econobox car in the left lane beside me.
 
I had a 89 toyota lifted 8 inches and I had that issue.. u bolts felt loose type feeling.. mine were a little loose. Didn't really have any issues after that but the truck became a trailer queen around that time.. sorry I have nothing elese to add..
 
It's usually my daily driver so I didn't want to do a spool, looking back a few extra $$$ could of had a full Detroit for it. I was way more concerned about having a lockright up front and had started regretting buying it before I even installed it. Well no regrets with that as I have no complaints about it, the rear just didn't sound to be that big of a deal. It all give and take when you make a change for it to work better offroad. I was fine with the normal racket that comes with it. I really though at the most I'll just have to Learn to drive with it. I just can't get ahold on the rhyme or reason it does the harsh jerking. I'll be ready for it to do it and it won't, make the same turn the same way I did the day before when it didn't get the huck-a-buck going on and then it does it. Lol. I have noticed it will quit once back on the gas, but I haven't done that enough to decide if it was a fluke or actually what I need to try do but I can't get back in the throttle in every situation
 
I hapen to have my impact with me sat and I hit the ubolts as soon as I got where I was going. None moved.
 
doesn't help you current situation, but for a DD, I would keep my eye out for an elocker third to put in the rear.

What your seeing sounds like every lockright ive driven on the street.
 
I have a e locker third but it won't work with the non e lock housing. I been thinking about going that route if I can find a housing.
 
Ya just wait till you try to drive it in the snow on a road that's halfway cleared

That was one of the popular discussions on having the LR up front. We don't see snow that often so that was a risk I was willing to take. I prefer to drive my suburban in snowy weather over the tacoma anyway. Being such a hefty ride it has great snow road manners.
 
The pattern is totally different between the two. Not like putting the elock in a non tacoma housing. That's why I got it to use in the front of another truck.
 
You would think the housing would be a easy find considering how many thirds get used in the older housings.
 
get an ifs width rear for cheap and mod it for the elocker. It's only 1.5" narrower, spacers will easily fix that, and the spring pads are already correct. Way cheaper than trying to find a tacoma elocker housing.
 
Well I didn't see anything that indicated the housing was bent. I did dump the gear oil for a look to see if any metal came out, all clean and no chunks or glitter flakes. I looked though the fill hole to see if the pin windows and pins were holding up. All seemed well. So I filled it full and went to bleed the clutch. As my helper is pumping the pedal I did notice that the trans mount bolts were either missing or loose. Replaced the missing and blue locktite on the way back in. The noise that I have noticed in the past few days had me worried it was a pinion bearing ended up being the center support bearing trying to bite the big one. So maybe with all the loose bolts, the center bearing going bad on top of the usual typical lockrite pop jerk clunk it made it all that much worse.
 
Went ahead a sent a msg to ECGS about a Detroit, if my truck was a automatic I could live with it. I did a spartan in a friends automatic 96 4Runner w you can feel the slack in the locker but not nearly as harsh as mine with the manual trans
 
Trans mount/center bearing/weak rear springs. All things to consider. I'm dealing with all of those same issues, and I don't even have a lockrite.
 
This was back in about 2003. My old 85 FS Bronco had a 9 inch rear with factory limited slip unit. I rebuilt the LS with new friction discs, and spent a bunch of time measuring the little springs in the LS unit and the cavity in which they were installed trying to figure out how many thin washers I could add before stacking up and putting the little springs in coil bind. This shimming of the springs ‘tightened’ up the LS noticeably. It worked really well after this. While going down a straight highway, if I let go of the wheel, the truck would very slowly drift to the left or right (I cannot remember which direction it was). If I kept it straight, you could feel the truck pulling slightly to the side. Then all of the sudden the tension would release, then slowly build up again. I believe the LS unit would hold things tight until the tension built up to a point that the limited slip slipped. I was running brand new 36” Bias TSL’s. I decided to measure them. I think I jacked up each wheel and wrapped a tape around the tires then did the math to get the true diameter. One measured 36-1/4” OD. One measured 36-3/4” OD. Those two were on the rear axle. The other two on the front measured close to 36-3/8”. I put the two front tires on the rear and the problem went away. I ended up changing to a Detroit locker some months later since I could still break one tire free in the rear when doing more difficult stuff.
 
Lol I didn't check the roll out.... Try chalking a tire and the driveway while your two year old daughter is outside with you. Not to mention I had to use a chalk egg from her art collection lol. Iam sure she thinks it's going to be ok to chalk draw on my truck and tires now. I guess it will go well with the peppa pig sticker the tacoma is sporting now. Haha
 
Back
Top