I scored an e locker for a C note from a friend and yesterday the G2 4:88 ring & pinion were dropped off but, I gotta wait until next week for the install kit, no problem.
What is a problem is the fact that this e locker came to me with no motor switch to engage or disengage the locker and I don't want to buy a used one because I have heard chances are it will fail when I need it. A manual shifter is what I'm after and Chilkat has a unit that costs more than I can afford now so what do I do?
Buy the used eBay unit for half the cost of a Chilkat or do I just hold off, wait like a good boy which I'm not good at doing or just put another charge on the Master Card?

I'll be buying the Chilkat manual shifter and it'll go in when all my other front axle parts are finally acquired.
I'll be buying axles, birfields, inner & outer hub gears and any other associated parts as soon as I get my next paycheck then as soon as my e locker is re geared we can get this party started.

I pulled the trigger on the Chilkat shifter kit, have axle & birfields in hand, have e locker and 4:88 ring & pinion but, I don't have my master install kit yet and the axle housing needs to be modified which will happen as soon as I get it apart next week.

Cool stuff from last year's birthday goes in now that the front end is apart for the e locker and axles install.

With the axles & birfields came a set of hub lock gears which I put into freshly cleaned hub locks and had to paint them just because.

Of course I had to be in a hurry and put masking tape over the red knob before the paint was dry so I have to do it again.

I'm alone with a bad back so until someone comes over to help me, this is how it has to stay.

I cant tell for sure, but it looks like shock mount / knuckle ball gusset is not welded to the ball part, looks like only welded on the tube, I could be wrong. can we get a close up pic

I made progress today and welded the brace on myself and I know my welds aren't pretty but, they penetrate and paint makes it all look good anyway. 😉

Pretty much done only needing to torque the left side flipped u bolts, apply the wheel spacers and wheel, fill the diff and drill the flange because they didn't give me the pre drilled flange that I paid for, oh well.


I'm exhausted and sore as hell but, first thing tomorrow morning I will finish off the rest of it and take her up to Rowhers Flats for a test crawl on the practice pile of rocks they have.
This weekend I am going to Gorman for an overnight event with the Frazier Park club, probably going to run Miller Jeep Trail and see how she feels now with a E Locker up front.

The next image I post will be from a trail, this last one has me pissed off because she is so close but, yet so far.

They put the wrong flange on the pinion shaft so I'm going over there now to have them install the correct one.

Driver side u bolts looks super loose. Look at that last pic.

The positive locking front diff is a different driving experience compared to the LSD I had in there, steering gets difficult at times but, she doesn't lag going over obstacles.
Now that I have the front axle sorted I have to turn towards suspension mods needing longer springs all the way around and finally get around to mounting the rear shock hanger.

I had to replace a 3rd member stud in the axle housing with one a bit longer so the cable stay would have a place to mount, the original stud was 25mm (an inch) too short and I just happened to have exhaust studs from a Honda motorcycle head on my tool box that just happened to be the correct length.

You should send me that junk elocker motor.

Being I was down with this foot thing for a couple of months I wasn't able to finish the install of the 5th shifter but, I put a rudimentary mount in there today to give me the idea of how to do this using scrap steel that came out of my next door neighbor's yard, old rusty angle iron and with that I've been able to come up with ideas for the finished product.

The passenger seat  doesn't live here anymore since the wife hates my truck and thinks the hobby is a total waste of money and more stupid than her little brother but, she doesn't have a real problem with it which is a bonus in a way.
Anyway, the seat is gone and a compressor sits where the seat used to be and now the bracket mount for the 5th shifter uses a bolt hole from the seat and a pre existing hole in the seat mount of the cab to hold the bracket that the shifter mechanism is bolted to.
The thing works great and I cant wait to go wheeling and try it out in anger. 😉

One problem I have is I dont have a band saw, just an angle grinder and a hand powered hacksaw which I'm not too fond of using.