Lockright Wear

My Ford 8.8 Lock-Right stopped working properly. It's been banging alot on the road, going straight but especially turning right under power. Right hand uphill turns sounds like a team of midgets at work with sledge hammers and shakes the whole rear end. Doesn't make a peep turning left. Also it now doesn't lock up off road when needed and instead ratchets and acts open.

I opened it up thought everything looked fine, teeth were a little worn, I didn't think they looked that bad. Springs and pins looked fine. I've been using the original 8.8 cross shaft and it looks fine, a little visible wear from contact but I can't even feel it with my fingernail. Thrust washers look fine. I checked the tolerance per the manual and both sides are within spec: .016" DS & .017" PS.

I have new springs and pins to put in as well as a new hardened cross shaft.

Here's some pics, the close-ups show the worst of the teeth. Does this look too worn?

Hopfully the new parts will smooth it's operation but I've had 3 lock-rights and none worked well untill I added at least a quart of lucas oil stabilizer in each pumpkin. I think 50/50 mix with synthetic lube was best.http://www.lucasoil.com/products/display_products.sd?iid=25&catid=2&loc=show

the wear on the teeth doesn't look bad to me. if the new pins and springs don't help you may want to chack an make sure your housing isn't bent. a friend of mine had a bent amc20 housing and 2 different lockers sounded like somebody making margaritas in the diff lol.

what is the spec for the distance? try shimming it to the lowest clearance end of the spec and see what that does...

The locker works by using load from the cross shaft and jambing the dogg gears into the spiders, so if there is too much end play there, it wont lockup...

Didnt happen to call Powertrax did you?

The spec is between .005-inch and .020-inch so it's at the wider end of the range, I'll try that and the Lucas if it's not too expensive. Is it OK to stack thrust washers to reduce that gap?

I haven't called powertrax yet, hard for me to do that during the day, maybe Monday.

I just want it to get me through Memorial day weekend then I can get a new locker or even go back to the spiders.

Thanks for the replies.