Hello everyone. I am currently on my way from Georgia to Alaska. I made a stop in Texas for my buddy’s wedding on a farm and had to engage my locker to get out from where I was parked. Now it is stuck engaged. I read through all the forums that I could about others experience with this and have not had success. I spent 3-4 hours monkeying around with it in the Auto Zone parking lot this morning. I was hoping one of you could point me in the right direction so I can continue my journey north. Thanks!

Description:

1. The rear diff is locked. I jacked up the rear end and the wheels rotate in the same direction when spun, and the tires skid when turning

2. Rear locker light flashes when I press the locker switch down though it never stays solid.

3. Rear locker light turns off when I press the locker switch up

4. The locker switch doesn’t seem to have any effect on the plate. When I press the switch the plate doesn’t move.

5. The plate in the diff is to the right, but the teeth/legs are still engaged to the left. See picture below.

 

Given your inspection, I would un plug the E-locker connector at the differential; this would stop all current flowing to the Elocker mechanism and see if that frees things up.

 

So, NORMALLY when we see a rubi locker stuck locked, it is cuz the actuator ring refuses to move back to the right. I can't say I've seen one where the ring moved over but the dog clutch remained stuck engaged. Are you familiar with the inner workings of this locker? If not, take a quick look at the pictures here -

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/stoc...-study-263666/

There is only a wave spring between the dog clutch plates that would normally separate them as the electric to the locker was killed and the actuator ring would snap back to the right. The wave spring is failing to separate the clutch plates here.

Forgive me for not having seen a rubi locker with my own eyes for some time now. can you see the two dog clutch plates through here? I can't recall and I can't tell. It kinda looks like dog clutch teeth here in this pic -



If that is the case, I'd try to use a flathead screwdriver and manually push that plate to the right. If that is not the case, I think I would disconnect the electrical harness and run straight 12v to the 2 pins (carefully with some alligator clips and simple probes like paper clips) to manually engage/disengage the locker. You might have to work both wheels at the same time.

I've been stuck on a trip with a locked rear end before so I know it sucks pretty bad.

 

Thanks y’all for the advice. I am back on the road after about 6 hours of messing around in an O’Reilly’s parking lot. For anyone wondering what I did, I pushed the plate left, then back to the right, then back to the left, and so forth several times. I jacked both of the wheels up and spun them around a bunch and seemingly randomly the teeth on the left popped out. Once the teeth were protruding out, the wheels stopped spinning in the same direction and I knew the axle was no longer locked. Only thing of note was the plate, when I manually slid it left, would not stay flush 360 degrees. When I get up to Alaska I’m going to take it all apart and see what the deal is with my locker.

I will post some videos I took during my trouble shooting that may or may not be helpful to others in the future.

 

My rear rubi locker failed during a trip to Moab. I had to fiddle a lot like you did to get it unlocked. I will add that getting my locker disengaging was something that progressed over time and many wheeling trips. When I started having issues I'd notice having to drive a few feet before the locker would disengage. Few feet eventually turned into longer and longer but it would still eventually unlock......until it didn't. Anyhow, when I got back home from Moab I played with it a bit and every time I'd lock it, it would fail to unlock on it's own even with some driving. I removed the locker, cleaned things up, and did a lot of bench testing. it operated fine.....Apply 12v to the contacts, actuator ring would snap back and forth appropriately, dog clutch would engage and disengage appropriately. Figured fine, we're good now, just needed a good cleaning. Reassembled everything. Tested again with it in the axle and everything worked as should with no load. Diff cover back on, oil in, test drive.......same ole story. It would lock and not unlock.

I had a buddy with a spare rubi e-locker that he gave to me and I replaced mine.....and eventually did an axle swap to a PR60 with an Eaton locker. To the best of my knowledge, there is no replacing that wave spring if that is the issue. pretty silly to have a whole locker that can fail due to a $5 spring.