For those of you with factory e-lockers AND rotated rear housings via adjustable rear UCAs (as in, rotated for pinion angle), beware: the factory track bar gets very close, and in some off-road situations touches oversize, aftermarket diff covers.

I was climbing a big obstacle on Wheeler Lake Trail in Park County, Colorado last week when the slack in my e-locker's wiring harness got severed from being pinched hard between a 'fin' on my SOLID diff cover and the inside edge of the OEM track bar. Easy enough repair, but an avoidable pain in the keester nonetheless.

I'll be calling Northridge for a JKS track bar (to match the one on the front) tomorrow. It looks to me like the JKS unit has more clearance than the factory one does.

 

that doesnt look like my track bar did you paint yours or shine it up cause mines black

 

I still have the stock rear track bar with a teraflex axle side HD track bar bracket. Mine isnt6 sitting at that severe of an angle as yours is. Do you have a track bar bracket of any type? If not it would most likely fix your issue.

 

I degrease and repaint my suspension components with flat stove-black 1-2x a year to keep things looking nice, especially after rashing things up on the rocks during a trail vacation.

My JK started life with a TeraFlex BB, so yes I've got the rear TB bracket (which came with the BB); the source of the problem, however, is using adjustable control arms out back to correct your pinon angle.

Hopefully the JKS unit will cure my woes.

 

Must be because yours is a frame side bracket. My longarms have the axle rotated back pretty far but my axle side track bar bracket raises the bar up enough it totally clears my solid diff cover.

 

I had the JKS rear with the Solid diff cover. There was plenty of clearance.

 

highoctane, that sounds much like my pal's JK with AEV Nth Degree suspension. Hhe too has a ton of clearance.

Tex, I'm not sure what's what on mine. Perhaps I've bent the track bar somehow. Your experience with the JKS TB sounds good though. I'll order one tomorrow.

Just fixed the damaged wiring, spliced in lengths of new wire and applied shrink tubing. The slack is routed above the top of the housing now, tied loosely to the e-brake cable with wire tires so as to avoid a repeat injury.

The only issue remaining is the infernal blinking idiot light.

It flashes now when I select the locker. Pretty confident I'm locked up (inside rear tire chirps on a tight test turn on dry pavement), but it's almost as if the computer got "stuck" when the wires got cut (a flashing light is supposed to designate the locker either not engaging or not disengaging). So my best guess is, locker's working, sensor isn't.

Piece of black electrical tape over the light in the dash? I know I've read this before here on the board, that guys can get locked but the freagin' light continues blinking.

 

Maybe try the battery disconnect routine?

The closer modern vehicles get to the PC on my desktop the more I want to hard wire control - alt - delete keys into them.

 

That's a pretty darned good idea. I'll try it.

 

I know what you are saying. If I was building a JK again I'd buy the cheapest used 4 dr out there and use nothing but the body and chassis. I'd gut the thing of ALL factory wiring and wire from scratch like if I was building a hot rod. I hate the CANBUS system and everything associated with it. If I did that I could drop a 6.0 Gen II or IV Small Black in it and I'd be a happy camper. Complete new instrumentation in the dash. Heck, the more I think about it I'd buy a used 2WD as I'd figure on going with a 4 speed Atlas and D60's front and rear.