skates04

I have been having issues with my lockers on my 2008 Rubicon with 68k miles on it. I bought the Jeep used a few months ago and had it out on the trail for the first time a week or so ago. The front locker engaged almost immediately on the trail. The rear locker took along time to lock up, 10 minutes of the light flashing before it finally engaged. (I was trying things like going forward/reverse, turns anything to persuade it. Went to disengage the front locker, it would not disengage, took 10 minutes or so then it finally went. Rear disengaged right away.

Today I went out to mess with the lockers in the drive way to see if maybe I had a bad electrical connection. Front locker engaged right way, rear would not engage. Then of course the front would not disengage. There is a dirt pull out near my house so I headed there to try and get it to disengage, it was not happy on the pavement even in 2wd. In the dirt I tried doing turns, read doing a circle in reverse does the trick, nope nothing.

Took the Jeep home jacked up one tire to see if I could get it to disengage by rocking the wheel back and forth, no luck.

Pulled the diff cover, had the wife toggle the switch a few times, nothing was moving. Took a screw driver and slid the actuator plate over, did the trick, disengaged. Tried to re-engage the front and it would now not lock up.

Sprayed everything real well with parts cleaner.

Tried to turn the front locker back on, nothing, again took my screwdriver and pushed the plate back over to lock it, light came on solid.

I did this process about 5 or 6 times using the switch and then helping the locker engage/disengage. Then it started working on its own.
Worked the system about 15 or 20 times and all seems well now. Also since every time I was engaging the front the rear had to be turned off/on. Rear system it seems to be working properly now as well.

I doubt the previous owner ever took the Jeep offroad so they never used the lockers.

It seems just exercising the lockers did the trick. It maybe worth it to cycle the lockers a few time every once and a while just to keep things from getting gummed up if you do not use them much.

Just thought I would share my experience, doing research it seemed a lot of people have had these issues and usually resorted to having the dealer replace the locker, adding shims, or other expensive work.

08rubie

I've heard it's all about the oil that's in there 2.. If u turn them on and off every so often and have good diff fluid u shouldnt have issues Sent from my Obama phone using JK-Forum

08rubie

Sent from my Obama phone using JK-Forum

RedRockJeeper

Good to know since I just bought a 2013 JKU Rubicon a couple of months ago. I have already used the lockers and the swaybar disconnect once. Almost to 3000 miles so will be soon changing all fluids to AMSOIL synthetics. That will probably help!!

08rubie

Yeah they get "gunked up "

Sent from my Obama phone using JK-Forum