centre diff lock action.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Hi Yall.

Has anyone else noticed this?

When driving through outback NSW on the dirt I had H4Locked.
Dirt loose/ wet road.
I had high 4 locked as I have heard it helps with tyre wear as well as helps stability towing

Some sections where tarred (floodways etc) some straight, some with turns.
Before these sections I would shift out of lock, sometimes it would stay locked( lock light on) until we dropped off the tar back onto dirt.
At that time I was ready to shift the stubby lever back into lock again.
Sometimes I drove two wheels of the side of the tar to release a bit of loading in the drive line. which sometimes did work.
It wasn't a concern with straight tar but it worried me in the turns/ bends.

..

what do you reckon? normal or not?

Jeff.

[Fazza Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fazza]

Yes Jeff in my experience this is normal, sometimes you may have to stop & back up to release the load from the centre diff lock. I only use the diff lock when I loose traction.

Fazza

[quadcam Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close quadcam]

Normal. I have found that Toyotas generally seem to be harder to unlock than some other brands. You can sometimes get them to unlock, when going forwards, by accelerating and then suddenly lifting off the throttle. If the drivetrain unloads enough it will unlock, otherwise it seems backing up is the only way (other than swerving all over the road, which is obviously not recommended).

In any case with a 120 series I wouldn't be locking the centre diff unless you can see that you are going into something really soft or slippery, eg soft fine sand or a wet black soil road. That's because the centre diff is an lsd anyway and it works well on wet surfaces (1st gear, tight turns, plently of throttle) in my experience. The lsd is a Torsen with some clutch plates which will probably be better than the visco lsd in 100 series (only in the late ones) and infinitely better than anything with an open centre diff.

[steveo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close steveo]

I have found after using the lock on slippery stuff difficult to unlock while in a forward gear ( i have an auto) a metre or two in reverse normally does the trick.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Ok .

Thanks. I thought it was normal but just wanted to ask.

Sounds good.

Jeff.