By Glenn Guinto (Glenn) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 08:53 am: Edit

I "accidentally" drove the Disco for about 15 minutes doing as much as 50 mph with the diff locked and the lever on high before realizing it. This happened a couple of weekends ago. Been driving it daily (on-road) eversince and didn't really notice anything different. I guess I have a two-part question regarding this:

1. Did I screw something up? (crossing fingers)
2. I have 46K on the truck and warranty ends at 50K, should I take it to the dealer and have them look at it? With the rate I'm driving, 50K should come around mid-Novemeber.

Thanks in advance.

-glenn

By Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:02 am: Edit

Mostly in a straight line??

Probably okay....

The reason why it's bad is because as you turn you'll develop wind-up. If you were driving in a straight line, you could probably go all day locked w/o ill effects... but as you turn, each tire has to go at a different rate to get you around the curve. That differing rate on each tire will build up on pavement because the tires aren't slipping. Off-road, it's okay because in sand/dirt/grass/etc, the tires can spin a little on the soft stuff and not create the wind-up stress.

IMHO, YMMV....

-L

By peter matusov on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:03 am: Edit

1. no
2. no

FWIW,

peter

By Glenn Guinto (Glenn) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:12 am: Edit

Yes, it was mostly straight forward driving. That sure is nice to hear. Thanks for the quick response Leslie and Peter!

By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:12 am: Edit

Well even if you drove in a straight line you can still get wound up due to differences in tire pressure between the front and rear will cause the two axles to spin at different speeds. I did it once myself and drove to work like that with lots of turns. I took it in and had it looked at and they said it was fine. I wouldn't worry about it.

By Glenn Guinto (Glenn) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:19 am: Edit

Wow! We actually posted at the same time Eric! Thanks for the response. This info will sure take away some paranoia whenever I hear every little road bump that I may encounter and think it's my diffs about to fall apart. Although, I'm sure they're a lot tougher than that.

By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:24 am: Edit

Ya, and I was hearing and could feel the clicking on some of the tight turns in my parking garage here at work. You should be ok.

By Daniel on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:31 am: Edit

Glenn,
Everyone pretty much covered it, but I wanted to add that according to the owner's manual, the diff-lock light would stay on if you had "wound up" your transmission.
If your light does stay on, the manual recommends driving backwards to try to "unwind" the tranny.

Disclaimer: This is straight from the manual, as I remember it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:38 am: Edit

Nope your not wrong that is what I had to do in order to get my light to turn off and the center diff to unlock. It can take a while to do as well. Or you can jack up you rear axle off the ground as I think that should work as well.

By peter matusov on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:39 am: Edit

>If your light does stay on, the manual recommends
>driving backwards to try to "unwind"
>the tranny.

all 50 miles, making sure you retrace your route exactly the same way.

or lift the entire truck in the air, and let it unwind like a spring-loaded toy

By Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 09:58 am: Edit

Hadn't thought about the psi affecting it that much, but yeah, it 'could'.....

Wouldn't worry about it anyway......

-L

By jeff price on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 06:07 pm: Edit

If it won't unwind by reversing pull onto something soft like the lawn in front of the office and reverse. It comes right out.

...Uh, so I hear.

cheers
-jeff