aussie locker help

[Nick F.]

I'm installing an aussie locker in my rear diff and i'm measuring my clearance between the pinion shaft and the spacers. (stole this pic off mud)

Clearance is supposed to be .006-.020. One side is fine .009. The other side is wierd. If I stick the feeler gauge on the top and bottom of the spacer, between the pinion shaft its about .016 but if you measure in the middle of the spacer it's about .029. I thought it was the pinion shaft that was worn but sliding it in and out gives the same clearances. Seems like the spacer is dished? any ideas? Run with it? Wait until tuesday and call aussie? Man I'd like to get this buttoned up.

 

[Nick F.]

I just went and pulled the spacer out and it is totally dished. I put a straight edge on it and you can see the gap. The other one is light tight. So I have proper clearance at the edges but not the middle. I'm inclined to think it will be fine. But they're very anal about their warranty and the say if you run it with improper clearance they will void it. ughh.

 

[nuclearlemon]

don't worry about running it with a little play. i run mine with a ton of play and that locker is pretty darn tough.

 

[Nick F.]

don't worry about running it with a little play. i run mine with a ton of play and that locker is pretty darn tough.

Awesome Ige, thats just what I needed. Someone to go along with my crap Worst case senario I'd have to pull it and put a new spacer in. That's not too bad.

Nick F.

 

[Nick F.]

Well, I got the thing thrown in there. Easy to do, sort of a pain in the ass, but easy to do. I just came in from driving around and It really seems to work great. You couldn't tell it was there driving around, exept some clicking on tight 3 point turns. I took it to a steep snowy grade and made a bunch of equal length peal out marks in the ice. AWESOME

 

[Rzeppa]

I agree with Ige. I've been running Lock Rights (same-same as Aussie) for many years on several different cruisers, and there's no engineering reason the dish should make a difference in performance.

 

[Nick F.]

I think you're right Jeff. I cant see how it would screw it up. I drove around and tested it some more today and it works great.

Nick F.

 

[subzali]

Now get that hardtop on! 5 days left!

 

[Nick F.]

I'm recruiting some goons as we speak.

 

[isotel]

I had a Dished out Spacer that came with mine.. I Called Shot an e-mail to Aussie locker with photos. He said its just an abnormality with the milling process or some crap like that.. He sent out a new spacer and a free t-shirt.. Now that im thinking about it, i guess the dished out one will work fine.. aslong as the smallest gap is in spec.

 

[Rzeppa]

I had a Dished out Spacer that came with mine.. I Called Shot an e-mail to Aussie locker with photos. He said its just an abnormality with the milling process or some crap like that.. He sent out a new spacer and a free t-shirt.. Now that im thinking about it, i guess the dished out one will work fine.. aslong as the smallest gap is in spec.

That's a load of cr@p. Their manufacturing process does not involve milling number one, and second there's no way any machining process (I've spent a LOT of time running mills and lathes) could possibly come up with those dimensions. If you weren't paying ANY attention the worst you could do would be about .002, not .005. With CNC it would be more like .0005. The problem is with their powder-metal sintering process, not with machining.

In any event, like I wrote, from an engineering standpoint, the parts should operate as-intended with the dimensions written, even if their quality control sucks. I just hope the hardness and tensile strength is properly distributed as the design was intended.