diff won't engage

[1rrover]

I have a 96 disco,auto, 140k miles fanatically serviced by 2 prior owners ,never really taken off road.

Here is the problem: diff won't lock.

shifts fine,hi -lo lock/ un-lock( shifter is not stuck) all linkeage is there, but I get no light on dash no wheel hop etc.

No funny noise, no grinding, other wise drives fine.

What gives?

I want to get air lockers , but I need to fix this before I do.
I had some guy in a chevy blazer pull me out of the sand a couple of weeks ago.

That hurt

Please Help!

[Buddy]

What gives?

I want to get air lockers , but I need to fix this before I do.
I had some guy in a chevy blazer pull me out of the sand a couple of weeks ago.

That hurt

Please Help!

boy that's embarasing! I'm not trying to infer anything here but are you sure the lever moves to the lock position? I don't know how many Rovers you have owned in the past or if this is your first but just incase the lever moves left to right as well as front to back. It should move a good 2 or so inches to the left when it engages into locked position. Sometimes the light will not come on because 1. the bulb is bad. 2. the switch is bad or miss alighned.

Best way to check is to jack one wheel up off the ground and put it in neutral then if you can turn the wheel it's not engaged. If you can not turn the wheel it's engaged. You can also try and help engage it manually with a 10mm wrench incase the linkage is semi ceased from lack of usage. the nipple should be above the front drive shaft on the front side of the transfer case. Just see if you can help it along.

If that does not work I would say take out the center console and work your way down making sure everything is working and moving freely.

[1rrover]

Did the 10mm wrench thing and it moves freely but springs back from lock at the end of the travel just a bit, did the jacking up the wheel thing no lock.

The only thing I have not done is disconect the linkeage and use the 10mm wrench to really try to engage the lock, because it seems to move enough to engage.

Is hard to belive that the diff would have some kind of internal dameage it seems that all kinds of grinding/ noise would come from it.

any ideas?

[Buddy]

None other then trying it w/o the linkage before you really start to tear things appart. I always try the cheap and simple things first before getting into the complex things. Just eliminate one thing at a time. I don't know enough about the internal workings to say if there is anything that could jamb there. Maybe if the sensor was screwed in too far but then the light would come on unless the bulb was burned out.

I know on mine it did not spring back any it would just click over into the lock positions and stay there. It's hard to give an opinion on something you can't see and especially feel.

[1rrover]

TrueThat!
I removed the lock out selenoid a while back to see if that would help but it did not, I think I'll follow you sugestion and disengage the linkeage and try to see what hapens when I use the wrench to engage the lock, maybe the linkeage is bent and does not allow for enough travel to engage the lock.
I do wish that the tranfer case was more accesable, but that is the way most every thing is on this rover, even changing the tail light bulbs is a pain in the tail

[TSR53]

There is a sticky on the top of the Discovery forum about "Diff lock stuck?"

Read it here, hopefully this will help illustrate all the moving parts that need attention.