Baja 2003 - Auto locker in front diff

Nice videos ! I am very impressed you were able to fit Torq lockers in the front and center. As the front differential is larger than the rear, how did you adapt the Torq locker ? Did you do any tests on dry pavement ?

Edit : just re-read your first post that answers my questions !
 
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jf1sf5 said:
Nice videos ! I am very impressed you were able to fit Torq lockers in the front and center. As the front differential is larger than the rear, how did you adapt the Torq locker ? Did you do any tests on dry pavement ?

Edit : just re-read your first post that answers
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Just a few more things I've learned...
The open/selectable center lock gives the best road manners. Great offroad but must give attention to lock/unlock it.
The autolocker center gives best offroad performance. It has nearly as good of road manners as the open.
Original VLSD center has nearly as good road manners. Unfortunately, in deep snow or mud, it can spin up entire rear or front.

Lighter springs with positioning bushings between sides and cross pin make by far the biggest improvement. Polishing the lock portions is the next most effective improvement. Better lubrication is always worthwhile. The needle roller bearings I added are probably overkill.

The autolocked front and rear is more enjoyable than stock on snowy, slushy or icy roads with any of these setups... as long as the lockers have the improved unlocking performance. I would not recommend a front locker without the mods discussed.

The inside working bits of subaru transmission differentials are pretty much the same dimensionally between MT, AT, and CVT.
I plan to put a front locker in my sons VTD 4EAT soon and based on the similar good handling between the different MT setups I've tested, I expect great handling from that as well. It will probably even do better than the MT as there should be less torque steer from an AT.

I'm putting off doing my son's transmission until they release the Ascent model locker , expected to become available in next couple months. The reason to wait... dimensionally the Ascent rear end is similar to the differentials found in the transmissions. That will significantly reduce the machining involved. It should mostly just become a matter of how to marry front half axles to the spline count of rear axles. The best method is to re-spline and re-harden stub axles as in my first post. However, I have a much easier way in mind that would put it into the realm of something that most people could do.

When they release the new Ascent model locker, I will post more information here that details the build for my sons AT.
 
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I am wondering....why didn't you install a DCCD as it should be far superior to a Vlsd (4kg up to 20kg), an open selectable center lock or even a Torq locker ?
 
jf1sf5 said:
I am wondering....why didn't you install a DCCD as it should be far superior to a Vlsd (4kg up to 20kg), an open selectable center lock or even a Torq locker ?
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Honestly, a DCCD would be a great choice.... and I may well do that eventually.
My choice of the autolocker center was mostly to challenge my machining and fabrication skills and to see how the three lockers would interact with each other.

I learned a great deal from the exercise. Most of the improvements to making the lockers unlock more easily and keep everything precisely positioned I learned from developing the center lock which fought me a great deal in the beginning. If I hadn't been so determined to make the center auto-locker work, I would likely have given up on front lockers before figuring out how to mitigate their behavior on the road.

I do now very much enjoy the center autolocker's self responding to conditions rather than needing input from me or some computer controller. None of the wheels are ever causing a drag against the car. But ultimately... the machining to build the center locker was ridiculous. DCCD is precisely what I would recommend to others for center locking a MT.

If the Ascent Torq locker does what I expect, I'm excited to think that in a few months time all the pieces could be in place for fully locked Subarus to become doable for average enthusiasts.
 
Subaru enthusiasts are mad....thank you !

And we have so many ways to modify our transmissions that even the big 4x4's don't have as much choice !

For the rear differential : Arb air locker, Eaton e-locker, Cusco clutch packs, Quaife helical, Oem vlsd, Torq autolocker and probably a few others....like a welded diff !

For the front differential : Cusco clutch packs, Quaife helical and now your Torq autolocker and maybe a few others ?

For the center differential : Oem Vlsd, Oem open/lock selectable, Oem planetary, Oem MPT and now your Torq autolocker again ! Anything else ?
 
To respond the question in your 2nd video, I could probably follow you on the tracks but not as easily as you, its quite impressing....
 
yes very cool we need those videos really to like see whats going on there and how it works in real situations ...those things should just make your life much easy i guess less stress on everything when you can just go trough places more slowly and more safe.
 
So the new Ascent/Wilderness locker by Torq Master is out! It will also fit Tribecas and some of the other H6 models. Basically, if your rear carrier has spin adjusting side bearings (usually called a 1-bolt carrier because of the single bolt that locks the adjuster in place) AND fills and drains from the side of the cast iron housing rather than through the aluminum end cover, then this is the locker you need. It is model (TL-VA225) also called subaru va2.
 
The new Torq locker for Subaru Ascents is out. I ordered one immediately and it has just arrived... everything I hoped it would be
 
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its nice to see that traction control works just fine wiht those lockers and its not freaking out there.. some comparisons just traction control and traction control with locker would be amazing to see... i think on just light situations traction control would just work fine on its own...would be interesting to see then in what situations that locker would make all easier and better.. its no brainer for old non VDC subarus no sure...and its sad that those are not sold in europe... at least not that i saw ...or if they resold they would be so much more expensive...thats not cool as well...
 
BonkersBaja said:
So the new Ascent/Wilderness locker by Torq Master is out! It will also fit Tribecas and some of the other H6 models. Basically, if your rear carrier has spin adjusting side bearings (usually called a 1-bolt carrier because of the single bolt that locks the adjuster in place) AND fills and drains from the side of the cast iron housing rather than through the aluminum end cover, then this is the locker you need. It is model (TL-VA225) also called subaru va2.
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i thought they allways had 5 bolt and 1 bolt locker models for r160 diffs , and those fit all models untill latests.
 
There have been some oddball 1-bolts out since 2005. These oddball 1-bolt models the 1-bolt lockers wouldn't fit. These were on some Turbo models and H6 models like Tribeca. The common R160 1-bolt is pretty small and yet the H6/Turbo models had a greater towing capacity than 5-bolt models because their oddball 1-bolt rear carriers were a larger version. These larger 1-bolt carriers were essentially the same differentials that are found in the manual transmissions crammed into a larger rear carrier housing except that the output splines are sized for rear axles rather than front axles. Size wise, these odd 1-bolt carriers are in between a R160 and R180 (would be about R168). Until the Ascent/Wilderness models however, they were not available as 4.444:1... now they are. For those making more power or significantly larger tires, the larger 1-bolt rears from an Ascent would be a moderate upgrade...especially now that a locker is available. There were through the years and model variants, 4.11 and other ratios available in the larger 1-bolt as well .
Because the larger 1-bolt was based off of the transmission differential sized parts, it makes an off road front locker pretty reasonable to do. Though there are small differences between different Subaru transmission differentials, since the mid 80's they all share essentially the same dimensions internally. So theoretically, an off road front locker is now available (after some axle marrying) for every Subaru variant since the mid 1980's because of this new locker model.
 
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I would love to see a photo of both the new Ascent Torq Locker and a stock 5mt front diff...just to compare the sizes.
 
Here you have a 5MT fitted with the new model locker😉 I included 4EAT diff as well. I don't have any 6MT or 5EAT or CVT diffs handy... but comparing parts from Subaru official part site suggests to me that it will fit these also. I haven't actually measured anything or checked the gaps but I am confident these will work without much fuss.

I must point out that having one in the front is NOT RECOMMENDED by Torq Masters and for good reason...it will drive pretty strange on the road. Some may even say they could be unsafe in a front differential that can't be dissengaged when on road. It is however a dream for OFF ROAD ONLY vehicles. It is possible to make things less strange on road, but not without some modifications to both front and rear lockers themselves.

The output splines match the rear half axle shafts, 26mm with 25 splines. Subaru front output splines would be 28.5mm with 25 splines. Hence the need to find a way to marry things together. I made for myself a pair of stub axles that are 26mm on transmission side and 28.5mm on axle side. I started with factory stub axles, normalized them for machining and reduced and re-splined the transmission end and then re-hardened them. Obviously, I have early female-socket half axles. I forgot to take a picture of the re-worked stub axles before assembling them into my transmission. The pic of the stub axle is of a welded prototype...however welding will BE PRONE TO FAILURE, and I don't recommend that approach.

It may also be possible to fit rear CV cups on front half axles?... I haven't tried that approach and don't believe they'd be as strong as the reducing stub axles.

I'm going to try to fit a Dana 30 auto-locker into a Subaru transmission differential which would require making the stub axles from scratch and some machining of the diff carrier to get everything fitting correctly. The advantage would be that the axle outputs would be about 29.5mm 27 spline... so even stronger than factory 28.5mm 25 spline. We'll see how that goes. I'm thinking of going to 32 inch tires and so going even stronger makes sense. Not that I've had any issues with the reduced stub axles with 29 inch tires.
 

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@jf1sf5
I like the concept. I've looked for those in the past. The used ones that are for certain to those specs are hard to find here. The new, after market ones, I don't trust to match those greater specs. But I'm always watching for used ones. If you know of great aftermarket set of new ones, let me know.

Anyway, it is the stub axle I want to improve as it is something that I'd prefer to never replace on a remote, "this needs fixed to get back to civilization" trail.
 
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