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Difflock engagement....reverse ?

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DesertStar
Posts: 2184

Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#1 » Mon Sep 01, 2008 12:53 am

Curious, can difflocks be engaged in reverse ? Never tried it, never had or anticipate a need and never read any inquiry on such.
Mike

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reinhardtius
Posts: 799

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#2 » Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:17 am

Just from my latest experience. I got stuck in the mud and pulled up on my rear diff lock and put the truck into reverse and they didnt engage, and now when i try to put my rear diff lock on I get a terrible grinding noise and it never engages... :?: :cry:

Any thoughts? Does this relate to engaging it in reverse?

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Dai C
Posts: 786

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#3 » Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:53 am

Mike, I think the mechanism is designed to work in either direction, the engagement dogs are symetrical. Also I think you want to be able to back out of a situation that requires it. Shouldn't be a problem. The tractors I use have this capability and it works in revers too.

-Dai

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DesertStar
Posts: 2184

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#4 » Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:40 pm

Thanks Dai. Snyder you may have other issues causing your grinding like sticky cylinders, sounds like you are not getting "full engagement" of the locking mechanism. I am not an expert on the subject, so a little hard to diagnose. You may want to start a thread to ask for help/input on solving that problem.
Mike

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jonathan joseph
Posts: 1407

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#5 » Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:21 am

Snyder

I'm no expert on difflocks ( Harald is supposed to be writing a book about them! Maybe he'll chime in) but it seems the common wisdom is to always engage them before coming to an obstacle that may get you stuck. They need some distance to engage. When you are already stuck and loose traction on one wheel it is possible to have that wheel spinning very fast when you try to engage. I believe this is when damage can occur. You want to engage them while moving slowly.

I'll look for some of Haralds posts on this subject. It has been discussed extensively.

Jonathan

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reinhardtius
Posts: 799

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#6 » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:23 pm

jonathan joseph wrote:Snyder

I'm no expert on difflocks ( Harald is supposed to be writing a book about them! Maybe he'll chime in) but it seems the common wisdom is to always engage them before coming to an obstacle that may get you stuck. They need some distance to engage. When you are already stuck and loose traction on one wheel it is possible to have that wheel spinning very fast when you try to engage. I believe this is when damage can occur. You want to engage them while moving slowly.

I'll look for some of Haralds posts on this subject. It has been discussed extensively.

Jonathan


Hate to hijack a post, but I went to a little spot up the road and got the truck to engage the rear locker BEFORE getting almost stuck... and viola! it works again. I do think that the front diff lock needs a new master cylinder, it wont move at all. I'm not sure why it wasn't engaging at all the other day, I did pull on the level yesterday while I was moving very slowly and my diff lock light did light up again.

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DesertStar
Posts: 2184

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#7 » Tue Sep 02, 2008 12:45 pm

Snyder, I had "lazy" difflocks that were slow to disengage last year when I went on an adventure with Harald and others. It took a full day of off-road before disengagement.
When I got home I tried flushing and had problems getting fluid to come out the rear locker cylinder, which was a big clue I had problems in the master cylinder hydraulic line area. I took out the master cylinders and found corrosion inside. A rebuild kit was in order and now all is well at the push/pull of the difflock knob.
Mike
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reinhardtius
Posts: 799

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#8 » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:05 pm

DesertStar wrote:Snyder, I had "lazy" difflocks that were slow to disengage last year when I went on an adventure with Harald and others. It took a full day of off-road before disengagement.
When I got home I tried flushing and had problems getting fluid to come out the rear locker cylinder, which was a big clue I had problems in the master cylinder hydraulic line area. I took out the master cylinders and found corrosion inside. A rebuild kit was in order and now all is well at the push/pull of the difflock knob.
Mike



Ah, okay. Thanks, another thing to ad to the fix it list :roll:

HowlingMad
Posts: 1

Re: Difflock engagement....reverse ?

Post#9 » Sun Apr 17, 2022 2:23 pm

Hi all,
Proud new owner of an immaculate ruby red 1995 W463, 5 door :)
This is the nearest topic to my issue and cant create topics, I guess as a new member,

I drove my car home when I collected if first, all good, I didn't play with the locks,
I don't test buttons until I get a car home, unlike my 10 year old self, true story my uncle often reminded me of!!

Got home and tested my lockers,
Centre diff locked fine,
Rear diff would not lock, no clunk and light remained not locked

I left it alone after disengaging and parking up.
Now I have a buzzing sound coming from the rear that I never noticed before playing with the rear diff??? Any connection to me pressing buttons? It's still buzzing after many restarts,
It sounds like a fuel pump but again I only noticed after the rear locker failed to engage!

2 days later I tried it again except this time before rolling to engage them I pressed, in sequence all three lockers to engage at once and then rolled slowly forward,
The centre and front lockers engaged but the rear did not,
I thought they would only lock in sequence.
99.99999% unlikely but given the scenario of the front being allowed to lock, could it be the rear locker dash bulb blown?

I don't believe the lockers have been used much in this cars history and I read that they are prone to blockage if left unused which could be the story here,

I'm more used to w124's and 126's so the G and its lockers are new territory for me,
Looking forward to the summer and having time to play with it,
Surprisingly little on youtube in relation to the 90's style G wagon!

Still don't think I found all the storage compartments, (so far only found under each front seat and under the rear seats, no jack found so I'm thinking there has to be another)

Really I'm just checking that the buzzing noise isn't a pump I'm killing by letting it buzz away,
Any recommendations for clearing out the cobwebs and getting the rear to engage?

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