8.8 Lockright Install With Write-up.

[zj95maxx]

Before I begin, just wanna say that there are many ways to do this I am sure, I did it a certain way and it worked for me. Follow this guide with your own risk. I assume no liability if you mess it up.

First part is simple.
Take off diff cover, drain the fluid.
Take off brake calibers and set them aside.
Put your tranny in neutral so you can move the driveshaft.

Ok, now you are ready to work.
Turn the driveshaft untill the crossshaft bolt is visible. Take a 5/16 wrench and take it out.


Now the cross shaft can slide out.


Now turn a axle shaft untill the top and bottom gears fall out.


Take both out and set them aside, make sure the shim came with them.


Now it is time to take the side gears out. Scince the 8.8 is C-clipped, you need to take them out to get the axle shafts out. Push the axle shafts in towards the carrier so you can pull the C-clip out like so.


Now do this on the other side as well.
Now you can pull the axle shafts out, they will slide out with ease so just pull them out and set them aside.


Now the side gears can be removed, do one at a time. It make take some force to pull them out, they are just sitting in there but they might have some suction to them because of the gear oil.



Now make sure the shims came out with these as well, as you need these for the locker.


Now you can install the left side gear, take the shim from the stock side gear and apply it to the back of the new Lockright side gear.


Place it in like so.


Now slide the axle shaft back in.


Put the C-clip back onto the axle shaft.


Now put the washer that came with the Lockright kit onto the axle shaft, with the recesses facing towards the axle shaft.


Pull the shaft out untill it is tight and it will sit like this.


Apply shim to other side gear.


Place right side gear in the right side of the carrier.




Now put the left middle gear onto the left side gear.


In the longer holes on the middle gear, put the pins in them, there are 2 longer holes on this side gear.


Now set the other middle gear on the ground like so and put the pins in the 2 longer holes again. Set the washer inside as well,again, with the recesses facing towards the tires.


Now put that middle gear into the right side, making sure the washer doesn't fall out in the process.


It should now look like this.


Now, go the closest hole with a pin in it and line it up with the smaller hole on the opposite gear and slide it over so it is now in both holes.



Now take the smaller spring and insert it into the larger spring.

Apply some gear oil to it if the small spring keeps falling out. Put the springs into the larger opening hole with the pin in the opposite hole.


Push it in with your finger and then use a small pick to further push it in until it sits in the hole.


Now do this for all the others.









Now with all the springs in place it is time to install the right side C-Clip. Push the right axle shaft in and use a screwdriver to pry open the middle and right side gear to allow space for the C-clip.

When in it will look like this.

[zj95maxx]

You are almost done!
Turn the carrier untill the cross shaft opening is facing you.


Slide cross shaft in with hole out so that it lines up with the crossshaft bolt hole.


Tighten up the bolt.


You are done!
Put diff cover on, fill it up with fluid and hope you dont shear off one of the diff cover bolts!

[cooperzj]

Great write up!

[RiPPiNiTuP7]

depending on how hard you tightened that bolt to make it shear off you might be able to take an easy out to it and thread it right back out. those things worked wonders for me in the past.

good write up though.

[nierace]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who's sheared a bolt off from the diff cover...

[Landman]

Thanks for putting in the effort to take so many pictures...very helpfull. Awesome write up.

[egg]

nice write-up, hows the lockright holding up 6 months later?

[tywilson88]

i sheard off a damn cover bolt too..

very good writeup

[zj95maxx]

nice write-up, hows the lockright holding up 6 months later?

good.

My 8.8 is not though
gear fluid is metallic-y and i hear a sound from the axle while driving and coasting..i dunno, ill be going 1 tons in the summer, fawk it

[egg]

My 8.8 is not though
gear fluid is metallic-y and i hear a sound from the axle while driving and coasting..i dunno, ill be going 1 tons in the summer, fawk it

thats a bummer dude,

my turdy5 w/ an arb did that to me before the cross pin broke while i was driving down I-70, the spider gears were moving in and out of position making it feel like i was randomly going in and out of neutral, luckily the disc brakes kept my shafts in place long enough to get me home, (I didnt know what the clunk was until I popped the cover when I got home).

[goodolboy71]

good.

My 8.8 is not though
gear fluid is metallic-y and i hear a sound from the axle while driving and coasting..i dunno, ill be going 1 tons in the summer, fawk it

take a good look at the carrier, i bet what yours is cracked as well and its flexing which can cause the gears,etc to wear wrong and small metallic in the oil...i know of 4 other people i have seen in person other than me that had lunchbox lockers and cracked the carriers in our 8.8's, one guy had it happen 2x with his lockright. going to a full carrier locker solved it for me and the others, except one guy who just tossed in a factory LS...

[kingskippy2001]

I know this sounds really stupid but, I cant get mine back OUT! Any pointers?

[dyn0mitemat]

How far along are you?

Pull the crosspin retaining bolt and the crosspin out
Then start pulling the springs out. Then the c-clips, and pull the locker out.

If its anything like the spartans in a d30 carrier you'll have to play around with spinning the locker about in the carrier until the flats line up on the center pieces of the locker. Besides that it should just come right out

I see your in SE OH, you goto wellsville at all? I'm headed to rock run in PA this weekend

[kingskippy2001]

main issue was trying to get the c-clips to come out.

Never been to Wellsville. I sty around the WV, KY area

[dyn0mitemat]

Well I assume you got the c-clips out then? They're a little tricky but just takes some patience.

And I just got back from Rock Run in PA, spent the whole day there. If you were thinking about going save your cash. We spent 5 hours driving on dozed paths with the rocks pushed out, and about a full hour of actual rock crawling...