[nzzooker]

So im wanting to put a rear auto locker in my 1998 Suzuki Samurai coily.

Im wanting a lower cost locker and was looking at a spartan locker are they any good?

Any info/ experiences and how much would labour cost roughly to install?

[Gwagensteve]

Most people seem to find spartan lockers noisy and clunky in operation in comparison to the Lok-right.

I’m no fan of auto lockers at all.

Can’t really comment on install cost. Many variables.

[Angus Martin]

Spools aren't bad

[greavesyzook]

had an auto and swaped it out for a spool much better and no clack clack clack from the auto locker

[nzzooker]

greavesyzook after swapping for a spool how did you find corners especially car parks etc?

help appreciated

[Gwagensteve]

From my experience with a spool, depending on tyre size and pressure the inside wheel will skip or squeal on tight U-turns. That’s about the only trade off. And has to be weighed up with the clunk/bang/click and unpredictable handling of an auto locker. The shorter and lighter the vehicle the more the “quirks” of the auto locker are felt. It’s hard to imagine a shorter and lighter 4WD.

[Eddy]

nzzooker wrote:

greavesyzook after swapping for a spool how did you find corners especially car parks etc?

help appreciated

I drove a falcon ute with a CIG locker for best part of eight years. Once I got used to it I often forgot that it was there it had so little effect.
Was only in tight parking, (City parking blocks ... squealing up and around the ramps) that it was noticeable, but still manageable. The rest of the time i felt it had some advantage, even for on-road driving.

[nzzooker]

oh wow thats real good information good to hear positive things about spools. Im on a budget being a student and spools are cheapish haha i think also good to know auto locker clunk will be felt more being smaller vehicle

cheers!

[greavesyzook]

https://www.trailtough.com/product/samu ... ini-spool/
this is the only spool i would buy for a zook mines had a flogging and still going strong

[ZUZUKI]

If there is nothing else found along the way, and it's a big IF in a 20yo car, you are looking at about 4hours x hourly rate to pull wheels, backing plates & axles out, tailshaft off, diff centre apart, clean up housing & 3rd member, stick it all back together, bleed brakes, road test.
Plus 2litres of oil.
But...plus (probably, maybe) uni joint/s, wheel bearings, brake shoes, pinion / carrier bearings etc - this is the sort of job that can appear simple & straight forward, but turn up unexpected issues, some of which you can check before it all gets pulled apart though.
Realistically, most workshops will be around $100p/hour these days = $500 approx. plus locker, another $500ish.
Welding the diff, or a spool will be cheaper & more predictable & still able to put an air locker in later, when you are no longer a student.

Have fun, Michael

[Technotron101]

Let's just say for example, that I have a limited slip differential lying at home... If I were to crank down the clutch plates so they bite pretty much instantly, would that be my most legal locker?

Partly because it's free, and partly because a limited slip is still a differential at the end of the day versus an auto or spool. Plus if I crank it up right it would certainly help traction if nothing else, surely?

[Gwagensteve]

Maybe, but it isn’t a locker, and at the preload point where it functions as well as a locker it will be like a spool to driven on road.

PS you have a Sierra LSD?

[greavesyzook]

iv never seen a sierra with lsd

[Technotron101]

Yeah I pulled the diff out because the pinion bearings were rooted (see my build thread) and discovered after it was out that I had a LSD the whole time.

I was thinking of preloading it right up, doing bearings and the like and chucking it back in.

[Gwagensteve]

Sell it to someone who doesn’t want a locker (apparently they exist- there are some comps that don’t permit lockers) and fit a locker.

[Technotron101]

I don't think there's any way it I could sell it for close to the price of a locker though could I?

[atari4x4]

are you sure it's an LSD & not just the standard suzuki closed center that encases the spider/sun gears?

did you check the circle spin ratio?

[Technotron101]

I'm not sure what ratio it is, but I can literally see the clutch packs through the little windows in the carrier. My new centre looks nothing alike.

[Gwagensteve]

Seriously, you’ll be surprised what people will pay for it.

[sideways]

Pics? I'd buy it off you. Shush steve.

I've installed spartan, lockrite and detroit. IMO I wouldn't touch spartans again, I'd go for lockrite. For Suzukis spartans have a reputation for being cantankerous beasts. They require the side gear shims to be removed so you can't set them up properly. If you want them to work well an autolocker must be shimmed properly, if they're too tight they will either never unlock or make the car lurch when it does. When you've got it on the bench test it with both axles, you want it to freely click over (very little resistance) with the other axle still. If you twist up the other axle then it should lock. You use different thickness sidegear shims to adjust its action.

I have a lockrite in my LJ80, aside from the extra play in the drive train you'd be hard pressed to know it was there. You can't hear it with the windows up, it doesn't ever make the car lurch. You can make it go bang under specific circumstances, with minor driving style adjustment it never will. I don't like the extra drivetrain play but I'd still have it over a spool for this car and its use. Really though, if a spool fell in my lap I'd be happy to use it. I don't have massively strong bias either way. If it was a vehicle with real power and manual I'd have the spool to avoid drivetrain clunks from the play, for the use of the LJ (tight bush tracks) I like the uncompromised turning circle.

[Technotron101]

Shipping'd be expensive getting it over to you haha

I must go and dig it out one day.

[nzzooker]

@sideways what was the part number of your locker and will is fit in a 1998 samurai (coily)