Hey all, been a while! Since I was last here, the X and I have had some adventures. Deep snow in the national forest, horrid highway conditions on the way to skiing, long road trips through the mountains in winter, winching large trees out of the way, winching stumps out of the ground, hauling construction equipment, and random Christmas trees in the highway at night. You know, the normal. After going through it here with folks, I had decided to put ARB air lockers on the front and back while I was changing the gear ratio to 4.56. I had a differential shop do the differential work, and I installed the air compressor and air lines myself. (Also installed the wiring for a receiver winch I can put on the front or back hitch receivers. Big 'ol 2-guage cable.) The shop that installed the diff air locker took a look at the auto locking hubs, and said they were shot and not actuating correctly. So they capped off the vacuum line, and installed some warn manual locking hubs.

The air lockers have been a problem, and both have steadily gotten worse over the past year. I hit the button, and the compressor doesn't shut off. I got under the truck this afternoon and finally tracked down where the leaking was coming from. Tubes coming out of each differential that run up and end up clipped to the body frame. I think it must be a vent? Anyway, when the air compressor is running, I can feel air shooting out of each of these vent tubes on the front and back.

Am I right to think that there must be a seal in the diff that is shot? Is this a problem I should bring back to the shop that installed the air lockers? It's strange that it's been steadily gotten equally worse on both the front and back.

 

 

yes you need to fix it. the internal seal or connection tube will leak if not installed correctly. 100% installer error.

when done correctly they do not leak

 

Wouldn't have that problem with Detroit lockers.

 

If I remember correctly, they don't make Detroit lockers for the front axel type.

 

They have a Yukon Grizzly locker for the Dana 50 front which is the same thing as a Detroit locker.

 

I also figured that it would be a bad idea to put an auto-locker on the front. Auto-locking at the wrong time could be disastrous. I'd rather manually choose when my front axel locks.

 

I have an auto locker in the front of my Jeep and it works great, no steering problems at all, however I wouldn't recommend driving it down the highway in the snow while in 4x4, an open front differential is much better at higher speeds. I like a Detroit Truetrac in the front axle of a vehicle that is driven on the street in the snow a lot, but the don't make one for the Dana 50.

 

Yeah, one of the main reasons I got the truck was for highway driving in snow. (And deep snow in general.) There is actually a custom-made carrier to fit a Detroit into the Dana 50, but I didn't feel like going for the extra complication.

Also, thanks for the reply pirate4x4_camo! I gave the place that installed it a call and have an appointment in a few weeks. I'm a bit worried that I did something wrong to cause the seal failure, but it's awfully suspicious that it failed on both the front and back. I don't use the front that much. Hopefully they will warranty it.

 

Who makes the carrier to put a Detroit Truetrac in a Dana 50? I would love to have one in the front of my F250.

 

There's a thread about it here:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...dana-50-a.html

 

you would be hard pressed to hurt the ARB, you can crash lock them all day long and not hurt it. you will likely break a ring gear or shear the pinion before you hurt the ARB.

not many reasons to crash lock it on your Ex but we fo it frequently in competition. crash lock = full throttle peeling out and engage the ARB. the ford 9” version used to break doing this but they redesigned it. it is the strongest component in your Dana 50 which will blow the locking hub off or shear the pinion or axle shaft long before you break the ARB. never seen on break in the Sterling rear axle.

anyhow, its just air leak. no big deal. the shop can fix it easily.

 

Good to know. I was specifically wondering about if I had an air leak in the line and engaged the locker at a bit too-low of air pressure. If that would grind gears and somehow overheat or damage the seal.

 

Good choice on the ARB. I ran those on my Jeep for 4-5 years. It sounds like an installation issue to me. Seals aren’t holding for the psi used or something. I ran mine with the ARB dual pump and never had a problem. With a rig this big it may be beneficial to have an air tank on board.

 

I tried contacting DTS about that a couple years back, never got any response.