slavedriver

Can't seem to get the rear differential to unlock in my wife's '08 unlimited rubicon. She ran the courses this weekend at the jeep blessing, but couldn't get the locker to disengage when finished. Has anyone experienced this, or does anyone have any suggestions as to what to try to fix it? Don't really want to take it to the dealership as my blood pressure goes through the roof everytime the come up with a reason as to why my full coverage life time warrenty won't cover it. Especiall if it is something stupid that I could fix myself. Please advise.

Vincent

Ummm...did you try to put it in reverse, may be it'll disengage...try a few different things. I don't have a Rubi so I'm not sure, sorry.

lastone

I just had this happen to my '10 with 24000 miles... Couldn't ever get it unlock and something major broke inside the diff...(I didn't ask) Dealership had to replace everything inside. Take it in the gravel and see if it unlocks.

Hope it's under warranty....

Vincent

Did she drive it home locked? Maybe rocking it forward & back? Man not sure.

slavedriver

I've tried everything short of opening it up to look inside. Since no one else has any suggestions, i'll most likely tear it apart. Thanks

Desert Fox

From personal experience I suggest the following before you rip into your diff:
- For the unit to lock or unlock, you have to be in 4L. Are you in 4L when trying to unlock?
- One old time Jeeper I run with said try this. Put it in 4L, Place a floor jack under the rear diff and lift both wheels off the ground, then try to unlock it. It worked, I have no idea why, but it did. Make sure you block the front wheels well in case your JK rolls off the jack.

Good luck

ronjenx

Doesn't need to be in 4lo to unlock. Just taking it out of 4lo will unlock it whether you push the button or not, (unless it's stuck, of course).
Have you recently had the differential out?
If not...
Remove the fill plug, take a common screw driver and pry the lock plate to the right.
It's a temporary fix, as it will probably stick the next time you lock it.

adamisadam

oh, this is good! I was just asking how exactly to manually unlock it through the fill hole. This really helps visualize what's going on. So for the front or rear, when facing the diff cover, we're prying that plate to the right (at 3 o'clock), correct? Prying away from the ring gear always. Which is prying away from the wider part of the pumpkin. (restating this several times to get it right).

TIA