Once again figuring out the weird stuff so you don't have to. I'm a sucker for cheap traction and found a lunch box locker on ebay for less then $500 so I had to give it a go.

Here she is as arrived from Russia with love. Badged "BLOKKA" It looked very reminiscent of the "LOKKA" that I had in the hp dana 30 front end in my jeep. That being said though the concept is the same, this is not the Aussie locker I was accustomed too. I will be following up on any long term issues or hiccups but even during install it really feels like I'm pushing my luck. My biggest complaint is that you have to clearance the carrier to get the guts installed. I already feel like the factory rover diff is lacking in meatiness removing more material just didn't feel good, but I was in too deep to turn back, and too excited to give up so in it went. I had my first experience with google translate because I couldn't believe that's what they wanted me to do but sure enough.

Here's how everything looked installed


I had bounced back and forth through my build plan if I was going selectable front and rear for this build or use the simplicity and reliability of an auto-locker in the rear. This was a cheap way to test the waters. Again, I don't have much faith here but we'll see how cheap and reliable its really is. I did go for a test drive and had the familiar old clip clop sound during turning I was used to with the jeep. I can say I feel like the center diff makes it seem much better mannered than the rwd 2wd jeep did as far as locking and unlocking in low speed parking lot manuvers. And of course I had to try it out.

 

I ran lock rights in my YJ and ran the Rubicon multiple times on 33s with otherwise stock the D30 and D35. If you can deal with the random activation on the street, they work great and are super simple. What you got looks like the same concept and I think you’ll be happy, except for like I said the random activation on the street at times.

Be forewarned, if you drive in the snow, they are terrible as you’ll be playing rally driver a good bit.

 

Thanks for the warning, I also had many years of lunchbox lockers in a jeep and I live New England and got used to my 4x4 being horrible in the snow. I'm more concerned with how long that cross pin and carrier are going to stay together and or when I'm going to snap and axle shaft.

 

I finally got it out for a little shake down trail ride.

Unfortunately not any action shots but the diesel and the locker worked very well. I did end up cutting the day a touch short as I was getting quite a bit of popping and scraping mostly from the left front. After a good look around and going over everything up front I feel that the steering box bolts probably were not tight enough, I got a few good cranks on them with a breaker bar and it seems to be better.

I also had a rat in my head about the front driveshaft potentially bottoming out now that the drivetrain has been shifted forward. I also didn't like that the axle seemed a bit far back in the wheel well after I had swapped out the bent terra firma radius arms for adrenalin off road ones. So I came up with the idea to space out the front axle a touch with some 1" ID washers.

which had me going from this

to this

I also sunk some lock washers into the outer bushings to keep the busing tension the same while still giving the nut something to bottom out against and it just barely is flush now with the end of the nylon in the lock nut.

 

All this recent prep work was about getting ready for Wheeling for Warriors. It's an off-roading event in New Hampshire mostly for the buggy crowd but they offer some guided rides through the best of the states class six roads. I signed us up for the "purple" tracks which is the most challenging group and felt terribly under gunned being the only one on 33's but some good spotting and some carefully lines had us through with minimal damage. I had a blast.
Not many pictures taken as the weather was rough. Gale force winds and a touch of snow at the end of may wasn't on my radar. Here she is in part of the line up I was calling the misfit toys. My VW TDI swap, a Humvee with a 6.0LS, and an old mail jeep that was more than half ram charger.

Probably my hardest challenge for the day was this awkward pinch on an uphill climb that kept pushing me into a rock on the drivers door. If I had a front locker it probably could've pulled me through but a quick winch got me out of strife with just kiss on the drivers door.

The TDI ran all day and really didn't skip a beat, it was a big day I want to say I fired it up first at 7:00am and it was on for most of the day through 9:00pm when I got home. I'm not sure exactly how many miles but my app from the trail ride said I did 55ish miles of trailer and the event was round about 100miles from home and it did it all on well less than a half a tank of fuel. I was impressed with the little diesels power and resilience but I guess thats why I put it in there to begin with. My only big OS moment was most of the trails I hung out in 1st and 2nd gear in low range. When I got out on the street and finally put it in high range I only had first and second gear. It took a few miles of 30+mph before it hit 3rd and then eventually grabbed forth. The ride home seemed loud but was smooth but it got me their with no dramas. I'll be giving it some more love soon to see what got damaged and what needs reconfiguring or more love.

 

that chassis on some skinny 33s will take you far further than they should. Always amazed to wheel with one of my buddies very well built swb classic on 255/85/16s, that rig will really surpise folks.