Andystoy19
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- Apr 24, 2019
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I decided to purchase the SATV pinlocker rather than the Halo locker because it was in stock and the price was better. They both appear to operate very similarily except that the SATV kit contains all the parts required when you disassemble the diff. You take out the visco lok and replace with SATV so if required in the future I could go back to Visco lok if I wanted to sell the machine for eg.
Rudy has a build on here for the Halo locker and what caught my eye was that he did not disassemble the front suspension as much as the excellent video from SATV does, probably saving me some time, thanks Rudy.
Raise and block the front end of the Defender securely, remove the front wheels, remove the bolt on the short arm of the front stabilizer and fold back out of the way. Take out the bolt(s) of each lower A arm and tap the arm down gently, it folds down out of the way. Remove the lower shock bolt to the A arm and raise and secure the shock(s) out of the way with a strap. Raise the remaining part of the suspension (upper A arm, steering and hub) onto your knee to find a free point where you can feel some in and out movement on the front axle, put both hands on the axle near the diff and push in and pull outwards sharply (towards yourself) to release the front axle from the differential. Rest the axle on the lower part of the frame and raise and secure the rest of the suspension out of the way. I raised the upper A arm only to the point where I could rest the inner splined axle on the frame out of the way. The same procedure for both sides.
Drain the diff, remove the vent line from the diff, remove the drive shaft bolt on the front and move it back off the spline and remove the front bolts holding the diff to the frame. Turn the diff and manuever it out towards the passenger side of the Defender, this requires some juggling because it is a tight fit.
Follow the video from SATV to disassemble and reassemble the front diff with their provided parts. I had a problem with the black anodized shift collar that has the four pins which provide the locking of the parts. It appeared that when the shift collar was made during installation of the pins the force caused the ID of the collar to swell slightly inwards preventing the collar from sliding over the hub. I used some Emery cloth and carefully sanded the inside of the shift collar to make it slightly larger. After many trial and error fittings I discovered the ID was too small only where the pins were so using a small round file I carefully removed only enough material to allow the shift hub to slide over the hub. I may be wrong but this should have been discovered when the kit was assembled for shipping, someone should have done a trial fit? The setting of the back lash was straight forward and I lubed all the new parts with some diff lube so nothing would be dry on start up and reinstall the drain plug.
Before I reinstalled the front diff I took the electrical harness and routed it through a grommet into the cab. The grommet I used is on the drivers side of the machine just above the frame that holds the top of the front shock. If you shine a light at the right angle upwards you can see it and reach it with two fingers it contains the shift cable which is line of sight from the inside of the cab. I removed the two screws on the shifter trim and you can barely see the grommet but it makes the fishing of the electrical cable easier and provides access to the back of the dash next to the switch access, Pop off the switch access which includes the ignition key and now you have access to the under dash terminal for the power you need to tie into. The terminal strip faces away from you (use a mirror after you disconnect the battery) the nearest terminal is ground, the center is always hot (battery connection) and the keyed on connection is the third connection. You need to connect the ground to the nearest bolt and the power to the farthest bolt, The nut is a 10mm and is a nyloc with a brass insert ($4/cdn if you drop it into the heater assembly), you will be working blind with one hand in each access. I used a 10mm nut driver end with a 8mm gear wrench (you can use a small ratchet if you can see or feel that you are on the right nut) to remove the nuts install the cable ends and reinstall and tighten the nut. This part of the job was a royal PITA with scrapes, cuts and choice language. I cut into the power wire and installed a 25 amp fuse just in case; I may replace the fuse with a smaller one when I find out what size it should be. The kit should come with a fuse holder and fuse to make the kit more complete. I cut out the panel access for the switch installed and tested the switch etc, tie wrapped in place and replaced the panel access. The wire harness outside (leading to the front diff) was tie wrapped out of the way and the grommet came loose so I had to reinstall it.
Slide the front diff back into place, reinstall the drive shaft and tighten the bolt. Install the 4 bolts that hold the diff to the frame, install the electric fitting to the top of the diff cover with two bolts and washers and clip the plug into place. Function the switch on the dash to see and hear the front shift solenoid working. Reinstall and zip tie the vent line.
Reinstall the front axles into the diff housing by giving them a good jar inwards to seat them right against the housing. SATV has a video on how to install and check to make the axles are properly seated in the diff, if they are not you will twist off the end of the drive shaft because of limited drive area.
Reinstall the lower A arm bolt, lower shock mount bolt and front tires. If you haven't already filled the front diff do so using 75-90 diff oil. I will update this post after I have tested the performance of the install in the future.
Rudy has a build on here for the Halo locker and what caught my eye was that he did not disassemble the front suspension as much as the excellent video from SATV does, probably saving me some time, thanks Rudy.
Raise and block the front end of the Defender securely, remove the front wheels, remove the bolt on the short arm of the front stabilizer and fold back out of the way. Take out the bolt(s) of each lower A arm and tap the arm down gently, it folds down out of the way. Remove the lower shock bolt to the A arm and raise and secure the shock(s) out of the way with a strap. Raise the remaining part of the suspension (upper A arm, steering and hub) onto your knee to find a free point where you can feel some in and out movement on the front axle, put both hands on the axle near the diff and push in and pull outwards sharply (towards yourself) to release the front axle from the differential. Rest the axle on the lower part of the frame and raise and secure the rest of the suspension out of the way. I raised the upper A arm only to the point where I could rest the inner splined axle on the frame out of the way. The same procedure for both sides.
Drain the diff, remove the vent line from the diff, remove the drive shaft bolt on the front and move it back off the spline and remove the front bolts holding the diff to the frame. Turn the diff and manuever it out towards the passenger side of the Defender, this requires some juggling because it is a tight fit.
Follow the video from SATV to disassemble and reassemble the front diff with their provided parts. I had a problem with the black anodized shift collar that has the four pins which provide the locking of the parts. It appeared that when the shift collar was made during installation of the pins the force caused the ID of the collar to swell slightly inwards preventing the collar from sliding over the hub. I used some Emery cloth and carefully sanded the inside of the shift collar to make it slightly larger. After many trial and error fittings I discovered the ID was too small only where the pins were so using a small round file I carefully removed only enough material to allow the shift hub to slide over the hub. I may be wrong but this should have been discovered when the kit was assembled for shipping, someone should have done a trial fit? The setting of the back lash was straight forward and I lubed all the new parts with some diff lube so nothing would be dry on start up and reinstall the drain plug.
Before I reinstalled the front diff I took the electrical harness and routed it through a grommet into the cab. The grommet I used is on the drivers side of the machine just above the frame that holds the top of the front shock. If you shine a light at the right angle upwards you can see it and reach it with two fingers it contains the shift cable which is line of sight from the inside of the cab. I removed the two screws on the shifter trim and you can barely see the grommet but it makes the fishing of the electrical cable easier and provides access to the back of the dash next to the switch access, Pop off the switch access which includes the ignition key and now you have access to the under dash terminal for the power you need to tie into. The terminal strip faces away from you (use a mirror after you disconnect the battery) the nearest terminal is ground, the center is always hot (battery connection) and the keyed on connection is the third connection. You need to connect the ground to the nearest bolt and the power to the farthest bolt, The nut is a 10mm and is a nyloc with a brass insert ($4/cdn if you drop it into the heater assembly), you will be working blind with one hand in each access. I used a 10mm nut driver end with a 8mm gear wrench (you can use a small ratchet if you can see or feel that you are on the right nut) to remove the nuts install the cable ends and reinstall and tighten the nut. This part of the job was a royal PITA with scrapes, cuts and choice language. I cut into the power wire and installed a 25 amp fuse just in case; I may replace the fuse with a smaller one when I find out what size it should be. The kit should come with a fuse holder and fuse to make the kit more complete. I cut out the panel access for the switch installed and tested the switch etc, tie wrapped in place and replaced the panel access. The wire harness outside (leading to the front diff) was tie wrapped out of the way and the grommet came loose so I had to reinstall it.
Slide the front diff back into place, reinstall the drive shaft and tighten the bolt. Install the 4 bolts that hold the diff to the frame, install the electric fitting to the top of the diff cover with two bolts and washers and clip the plug into place. Function the switch on the dash to see and hear the front shift solenoid working. Reinstall and zip tie the vent line.
Reinstall the front axles into the diff housing by giving them a good jar inwards to seat them right against the housing. SATV has a video on how to install and check to make the axles are properly seated in the diff, if they are not you will twist off the end of the drive shaft because of limited drive area.
Reinstall the lower A arm bolt, lower shock mount bolt and front tires. If you haven't already filled the front diff do so using 75-90 diff oil. I will update this post after I have tested the performance of the install in the future.
