so i was messin with my frozen up diff lock and magically it went in and locked up! i've been wigglin that thing for bout 9-10 months now. anyways, this is my first vehicle to be equipped with one, my question is should i just lock it in whenever i put her in 4lo or just when off roading in general? also what is the quality of the locker. should i be gentle with it or is it pretty stout?

 

Diff lock only locks your Transfer Case. Basically, it's locking both your front and rear drive-shafts together as one. This should only be used in low traction situations, and not on the high-way. By locking it anytime your off-road, your turning radius will suffer.

A common misconception is, this locks your front and rear differentials. This is not right. It only locks your center diff (Transfer-case).

How strong is it? Basically bomb proof. The LT-230 is a bad-*** t-case. It has it's weaker parts, but if your running a truck with reasonable horsepower, and reasonable tire size, you'll never break it. Just make sire it has fluid in it, as they are prone to leaks.

 

You only want to lock the transfer case when you are off road
in either low or high.
Do not lock it in on pavement bad things will happen.
Go off road every 30 days to shift in and out of low or high
to keep the transfer linkage from seizing up again, you don't have to go more than 100 ft or so.
If you can get under and grease the linkage it will help.

 

so should i go from 4hi then to 4lo in muddy/slick stuff and if they doesn't pull lock in the diff?

 

What you have with the transfer case locked is one frt tire and one rear
tire working driver frt and pas side rear in most cases.
Before you head in to any mud or anything that needs the transfer case
locked you need to know how fast you will be going & then see if
low or high will work .
You never want to stop in the mud or anything else to down shift
you can get stuck.

 

yeah thats what i needed to know. i have been meanin to get an arb locker for my jeep but never got to it. so i wasn't sure xactly how to work it. how fast can you go with it locked? pretty slow i would imagine.

 

where do u check the fluid? what type of fluid do most use? I'll prolly just change it once I get underneath her.

 

The transfer case plug is to the left of the brake drum about 2/3s up
it is a 1/2" square ratchet .
The drain plug is a little bolt just a the bottom.
I just changed my gear boxs and put in synthetic gear oil 75w90 GL-5

 

You can go as fast as you want. The Lt-230 is pretty tough, and gear driven. The problem lies with the oiling of the bearings. Over time, being locked, the bearing will heat up, and burn out if run at a high rate of speed.

But, however, I grenaded a drive-shaft once, and drove around in diff lock for about a week, even on the interstate, with no issues.