What Locker for AMC 20?

wade178

wade178

New Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
Location
Conover NC
So I'm building a 76 CJ7 with the 304 and a 4" spring lift and 2" shackle lift. I'm planning on running 35's under it. I am looking at a set of wide tracs to stuff under it too. Anyone have a recomendation for a locker for the rear AMC 20? It will be used for light offroading and street driving. I would be open to a used one if anyone had one. Any recomendation on tires too? Thanks
 
Ox Locker

but on an amc20. I'm no axle expert...in fact I'm kinda dumb about them but wouldn't you be better off spending 400 bucks on a 8.8 with limited slip and disk brakes then you would getting a locker installed?

I could be wrong....in fact according to my wife I'm hardley ever not wrong, so I would wait for someone else to chime in.
 
You will need to truss that AMC20 before you do anything to it. They are known to have a weak housing. Throw a locker in the mix & you have a recipe for a broke, bent or spun tubes.
 
I never had a LockRite in the rear, but heard they are kind of obnoxious and jerky. For DD and mallcrawling, I really like the Powertrax NoSlip in my AMC20, its really smooth and I think I have never heard it ratchet if forward gear. There's been a handful of time in about 10yrs I've heard it make a loud CLICK while backing into a tight parking space. Off-road it has never disappointed me, always locked up. Mine is a pre-Richmond Gear model, I'm not sure if they made any changes to the design.

Sounds like your CJ will be setup close to mine. I'd stay away from the 2" shackles. I had 1" front shackles for about a month, scary steering due to caster changes. I trimmed the fenders a lot to fit 35" BFG MTs.
 
mbalbritton said:
Just get a Lock-Rite for it. No real sense in dumping a ton of money on a selectable for it.
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Back when I still had the 20 in my CJ7, I ran a lock-Rite for several years with no issues. I did install one piece shafts at the same time though. 35's might be pushing the 20 to an early grave if you do any harder type of off roading with it. I ran 33's back then and never had any problems.
 
Jeff B said:
You will need to truss that AMC20 before you do anything to it. They are known to have a weak housing. Throw a locker in the mix & you have a recipe for a broke, bent or spun tubes.
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^^^truth. Mine was not trussed and the drivers side tube is bent upward. I had ECGS truss my new axle up, and move all the internals to the new trussed housing.
I plug welded the tubes to the chunk in my original widetrack housing, so the tubes never spun.

I assume you are going with one-piece axleshafts. I spun a hub way back in my original narrow track axle with open carrier and 31"s.
 
wade178 said:
Thanks guys! Should I just skip the AMC 20 all together and install something else? I won't be pushing it too hard.
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One piece axles, truss, then the lockright. If your willing to do these things then yes it will hold up to moderate wheeling.
 
wade178 said:
Thanks guys! Should I just skip the AMC 20 all together and install something else? I won't be pushing it too hard.
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Really depends on just how hard you are going to beat on it. I ran a Narrow trac 20 in my CJ with One piece shafts and a lockright. No Truss, and 32" tires. Never had a complaint out of it.

I missed the part about 35's That's pushing it IMHO. If you're set on running 35's, find a 44 and lock it. the wall thickness of the tubes on a D44 is about 1/2" thick. The Tubes on the AMC20 are about 1/8" thick. See where that's leading to?

Honestly, the money it takes to truss an AMC20 (assuming you pay someone to do it) will probably balance out the cost of selling your 20 and buying a 44 (with the same gears already in it).
 
Thanks guys for all your help. Still undecided, but I think I'm just going to build the wide tracs for now with the truss and one piece axles. Thanks again!
 
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