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Starting to see why these things get a bad name. HELP LOL.

Smokehouse_83

NAXJA Forum User
Location
New Mexico
I bought a nice cheap little 89 a year ago that had a Rusty's long arm kit, 8.8, 35's, 4:88's, ect for 2500 bucks. Nice little beater/crawler. Well it has been nothing but problems. First was the death wobble I finally fixed it with a Iron Rock track bar upgrade for the shit rusty's track bar, New spicer ball joints, new timken wheel bearings, new spicer ujoints. I welded the rear diff and added a Lokka to the front and started wheeling the piss out of, worked great, had alot of fun, burt up a stock pump, added a Grand Cherokee withhydraulic fan pump, broke one of the nipples off swithed to the other nipple, broke the bolts holding the box to the frame, replaced those and wheeled the piss out of it about a month ago and thats when my now problem started that I am asking about now.

I high centered the jeep on a rock and after I got off and hit the forest road the thing was all over the road the steering box bolts had loosed up. I tightened them to no avail and it also wouldnt steer to the left at all. I ordered a new box and the steering box brace from Iron man offroad that took a month to come in thinking the box had let go internally. The next weekend I Put the new box in and test drove it late at night and it was good. Got up the next morning to go wheel and it was donig the same shit, but was steering from lock to lock now but it felt like the jeep wanted to go straight with the wheel turned, ended up taking a stock ass Explorer on 31's that killed it. Left the jeep siting up there for 2 weeks waiting on Iron Man to get off their asses and send the brace thinking the frame was flexing and fixed the axle side track bar mount in the mean time cause it was shot. So the kit came in and it installed it and it drove like a dream for about 5 miles and started doing the same shit and the box wouldnt turn lock to lock. Ordered another box from Rock Auto and put it in last Friday and it drove great again for a few miles and then bam jeep would keep going straight with the wheel turned and was hard to steer. Figured I would put another pump in since it was leaking from the broke off nipple anyway Put that in this morning drove it to lunch felt great fixed on the way back from lunch here we go turned into the lot and it pushed though the turn. Feels like when you have the brakes locked up trying to turn, the body is turning with the wheel but the jeep wont turn. What the hell is going on with this thing, can anybody give me some pointers on what the hell it could be? I tightened all the bolts checked for broke frame rails or broke links and found nothing. I am gonna drive this bitch off a cliff soon.
 
First guess is your Lokka is jammed, or you have something else broken in the front axle that's jamming the steering.

Second guess is there's air trapped in the pump or steering box and you're losing your power assist to that.

Third guess is the preload is too tight on the box and it's hanging up.

Fourth is there's something wrong that would be extremely obvious if you were looking at the Jeep in person but is not obvious through a written description, like the steering shaft has wires wrapped around it, there's a broken swaybar link jammed through the steering, the entire track bar bracket is ripped most of the way off the axle, or whatever else.
 
Had a fellow Mechanic come over to drive it to get a second opinion and imedietly notices the Lokka isnt unlocking and since I am standing there looking at it and not drinkin cold beer I notice it also that the front tires are dragging/Lokka is staying locked(was hard to notice while driving since the rear is welded). I say to him welll how the hell do guys drive with spools or welded diffs in the front and he says don't be a pussy thats how. He goes out and drives it and comes back saying yep if you turn slow its shady as hell, but if you pound on it and turn the Lokka unlocks and it steers. Guess my Lokka is fugged and staying locked unless you hammer on it. Must of screwed it up wheeling last time I went out. Might be time to retire it too just plowing down forest roads and through trails cause I am sick of spending money on it and spending more time working on it then wheeling.
 
Lokka and Aussie are the same. From what I have read it sounds like I probably broke a locating pin and a pin kit is 40 bucks. Thinking about throwing a Spartan in there though since you get a new cross pin with it and you dont have to set it up with thrust washers.
 
Lokka and Aussie are the same. From what I have read it sounds like I probably broke a locating pin and a pin kit is 40 bucks. Thinking about throwing a Spartan in there though since you get a new cross pin with it and you dont have to set it up with thrust washers.

It's not enough of an upgrade to justify the cost.

If you're going trail only, don't want to spend a lot of money, and want it to be reliable (or shift the failure point elsewhere)... Go with a full spool.
 
It's not enough of an upgrade to justify the cost.

If you're going trail only, don't want to spend a lot of money, and want it to be reliable (or shift the failure point elsewhere)... Go with a full spool.

Wouldn't that permanently cause the problem he's trying to fix?
 
Aussie, lokka, Spartan etc are similar design, its the materials that are different.
if you wanna get a decent locker get one of those, or get a gear driven LSD.
could also look into OX, depending on what you wanna spend
 
I would get rid of the axle before I started down the high end locker/shafts/joints/ect road. Its a Dana 30 and ill be lucky to keep it alive on 35"s. I am building a buggy right now also and extra money is going into that instead.
 
does it unlock in reverse? have heard of guys flipping the entire locker around when they had similar issues with them not unlocking. may be worth popping the cover off to see what's going on .

Have been running a lokka in both ends of mine for a few years with no issues.
 
Have been running a lokka in both ends of mine for a few years with no issues.

I've had no problem with mine. People who hate on the Lokkas want to justify their spending more on an Aussie.

Bottom line is lunchbox lockers are pretty much a suicide vest that's rigged to blow, but I guess some people figure spending more for a prettier suicide vest makes it a better idea.

That said I have a Spartan in my other rig since it has real axles. The better cross pin is a real world upgrade in some applications, but with a D30 it's pretty moot.
 
That's what's so funny, you over-paid for a 30yr old XJ and you want to complain?
 
Aussie, lokka, Spartan etc are similar design, its the materials that are different.
if you wanna get a decent locker get one of those, or get a gear driven LSD.
could also look into OX, depending on what you wanna spend

curious how the materials are different. out of the box and after heat cycles
 
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