Effort to get Aussie Locker produced; need info

jf1sf5 said:
If you look closely to both the r180 and r160 on your pic, you will see that my diff is a r160 (air vent in front of bolt, and cover where the bolts hold the diff is flat rather than two "bumps")
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Your diff on the left looks like a normal R160. The one on the right looks very strange, never seen one like that. I wonder if it's an old school diff like a Brumby/MY, L Series, etc? I don't know the old school Subies that well
 
Ok after looking very closely between your pic jf and the pic I dug up I can see what you mean. Very strange.

As for L series/My r160 rear diffs - pretty much the same as the R160 diff in the pics I borrowed in an earlier post, except that the L series and MY rear diffs have the 23 spline output stubs. Same as the gen1 (and 2??) liberty.

Cheers

Bennie
 
We have strange Subaru bits over here !

BG n/a exhausts taking the same route as turbo exhausts (up-pipe, down-pipe), small r160 diffs, front SVX axles (inner cv's) with 30° angle...
 
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@Rally Was it ever seriously and widely promoted? Or too expensive? That's the E-Locker I assume?
 
It was widely publicised in numerous, appropriate locations although I know now many today are unaware of it. It wasn’t helped by negative comments by would be know it alls. Obviously the market considered it too expensive, but you get what you pay for. Mine was, and remains to the best of my knowledge, the best system for a Subaru. Silent, effective, durable. Mind you, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Dave and I were so sick of the negativity that we lost interest in development of the front diff locker. We had already begun work on it, and were confident it could work, but went no further. We figured also if people weren’t going to buy a rear locker, then they wouldn’t buy a front locker either. It never occurred to me so many people would be happy to spend money on a cheap and noisy fragile R160 locker system with technology based on such an old principles.
 
I can only imagine it would've been a very expensive exercise, probably more than my car is worth. ;-)
 
Whats wrong with us torq locker or russian lock right /one click lockers? They send them where you need. Doubt subaru would ever need something better.
 
They’re crude, noisy and because they are based on the R160 design, more likely to break axles. Also the risk of them engaging when you don’t want them to. To the best of my knowledge, only one manufacturer uses such technology-General Motors in one of their trucks.

Drum brakes, lever arm shock absorbers, cross ply tyres and lap only belts also work. Why would you ever need something better?
 
all comes for price .. it must be normal price or it just dont make any sense anyway ... large wheels brake subaru axles anyway, those cars just wasnt made to do that kind of stuff.. so you need to then change modify half or car for lot money for any kind of other locker to work .
those lockers for r160 works fine not too noisy but you need to sacrifise something allways anyway. if its cheaper to just buy other car plus locker for that it makes no sense .
and with money you can make anything from any poop anyway. too much modifications doesnt mean that car is capable of anything because its not , modifications are.
dacia duster is for cheap and it can have all lockers and such and be much more capable then forester would ever dream of , so what ?
 
scalman said:
dacia duster is for cheap and it can have all lockers and such and be much more capable then forester would ever dream of , so what ?
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There are many Dacia Duster in France but I've never seen any really offroading.

When you say the Dacia Duster can have lockers, do you mean real lockers like ARB or E-locker or something like the Torqlocker or Lockright ?
 
Rally said:
Dave and I were so sick of the negativity that we lost interest in development of the front diff locker. We had already begun work on it, and were confident it could work, but went no further. We figured also if people weren’t going to buy a rear locker, then they wouldn’t buy a front locker either. It never occurred to me so many people would be happy to spend money on a cheap and noisy fragile R160 locker system with technology based on such an old principles.
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Maybe you didn't know how to "sell" the product, to give the people the desire to buy one ?
 
It’s more like off road Subaru owners are such tightarses. In the WRX world, owners wouldn’t blink at spending good money on something that offered such an improvement and was well designed. You also have to be careful about trying to sell stuff on forums. So I wasn’t in full on salesman mode. People for years, decades, had been complaining about there being no diff lockers for Subaru diffs. So we made one and were happy to make them for others as well Even though I wouldn’t have got a cent out of any sale. It would have been good to see them out there, and for Dave to get something out of it for his genius and labour. All it ended up doing though was to increase the talk about lockers and someone to come up with a cheapie. Funny how before our elocker there were no lockers for Subaru diffs, then a year or 2 later there are a couple of others. A bit like how years ago when they brought out VCRs. Everyone knew Beta was better and came first, but it was VHS that was far more popular. Professionals though who wanted quality went with Beta.
 
Well I know I have spent thousands of dollars and huge effort on my Foz over the years. But for the very few times a locker would be useful I think it's not worth the expense; same goes for my Triton which also has no rear locker. If I were undertaking some form of competition then it would be a very useful addition. The demand just does not seem to exist; even for the cheapie versions.
 
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@Rally Would your mate Dave still be willing to make a one-off R180 e-locker? I would hate daily driving with one of those un-lockers.
 
No, since he moved interstate he is involved in other work and has no desire to work on cars anymore.

He originally bought a 105 to tow his boat. I talked him into going camping and he would take his 105 and I would take the SG camping. Then his son bought a Mitsubishi Challenger and he got hooked as well into camping and 4WDing. They absolutely love camping just as I do. With little or no experience 4WDing they were both very good at it straight away. I then bought my Ranger and they were impressed with its fuel economy compared not just to their cars, but my SG as well.

His son sold his Mitsubishi and bought a turbo diesel Prado and soon after that Dave bought a turbo diesel 100 Series. The rooftop tent from my SG is now on my Ranger, and Dave put the same type on his car. Even though he lives interstate we all still get together to go camping. Dave’s grandkids now join us. So his interests have changed where he’d rather be camping or on his boat or JetSki than working on cars. I don’t blame him!
 
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