alexd106 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Dear members After trawling through lots of posts on this great site I am looking for some advice regarding my diff lock. I have a 2005 td5 defender and my diff lock will not engage. The box selects high and low without a problem but when i try to select the diff lock the gear level will only move anout 0.5-1 cm and no light is illuminated on the dash. I have taken a look at the linkage mechanism and it appears free from crud and i have given it all a liberally spray (or 5) of Plusgas. Still no luck. I removed the rubber gator and the foam to take a look at the the top of the mechanism. When the lever is in the unlocked position it looks like this When i try to move the lever to the locked position the gold (red arrow) thingymagjig (sorry, not sure what this is called) moves to the drivers side a little but the shaft (arrowed white) does not move at all. This is what it looks like when i move the lever to the locked position Is the shaft (white arrow) supposed to move? When i wiggle the gear selector the linkage does not appear to move at all. Can anyone help? Thanks a million Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve200TDi Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 You may need the car slightly rolling to get it in difflock. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve200TDi Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 As I've been replacing my transfer box myself, I thought I'd take a few photos for you. It was a bit dark as you can see! No diff lock: Difflock (you can see the bit you arrowed in red does move a little): But also there's an arm that rotates to engage and disengage the diff lock. This may be sticking or may need the vehicle to roll slightly for it to engage. No diff lock: Diff lock: Hope this helps and there is also adjustment on the pivot. You can move it in or out with the lock nut to gain more throw. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexd106 Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 Cheers Steve, much appreciated. I'll take a look tomorrow but when i tried that previously it didnt seem to help. When i move the diff selector lever to engage the diff i cant see any of the top likages move or the cross shaft (i think thats what its called!). I wonder if its seized. CAn i engage the diff at the transfer box end? do i need to remove the linkages to do this? To be honest iam still trying to figure out how all the linkages and the cross shaft move together the turn the diff selector at the box end! Also, as i have never seen a working diff lock iam not sure how far the selector lever is supposed to move. Can you give me an idea please. Cheers for your help Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexd106 Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Quick update in case this might help anyone else suffering the same problem. So the issue turned out to be the cross shaft. It was completely stuck due to surface rust and lack of use (mostly on the passenger side end cap). The linkages were are fine - if a little rusty. I ended up removing the transmission tunnel and both front footwell floors (the screws were all a rusty mess and needed replacing anyway) for better access but this might be doable by just removing the rubber gaitor from the lever (but dont quote me!) Here is the housing with the rubber gaitor removed. You can see the rusty end of the cross shaft in the first picture and the top linkages Before i did anything i moved the transfer gear lever into neutral. I removed the 4 studs (2 short 2 long) on the housing and undid the bolt on the top linkage and also the operating arm. After which i was able to easily remove the housing and carefully remove the paper gasket. Once in the garage i could see the rusty end of the cross shaft more easily Here is the mechanism with the housing turned upside down Removing the cross shaft was pretty straight forward, just remove the circliip around the plastic sheath, undo the clevis pin on the crank arm and finally undo the two screws in the end cap. I needed to give the cross shaft a bit of a whack on each end with a hammer using a punch to release it from the end cap due to the rust (no wonder i couldnt move it in the truck). Once it was all cleaned up, lubbed and reassembled it all moved much more smoothly and i can now lock my diff. Happy days. Just need to sort out the floor panels in the footwells now. Thanks to Steve for supplyig me with some earlier info. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Nice fix, good work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco-Ron Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 its not uncommon for this to happen if its never used. ... more common on discovery versions. .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve200TDi Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Glad you got it sorted! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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