Front airlocker bad news

Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane southside

One of my mates who works for ARB rang me today to inform me that the new approx date for the release of the locker is now June. Apparantly the first one is to be installed this week for testing....Fawk,,,, another few months we wait....

Oh, and the 3.5L rear is at least 12 months off....

Its was a disappointment to hear but I guess its worth the wait

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

Yeah I heard the same thing...................
I was told something went wrong during testing which pushed the release date back.

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

Well when I went to Hardman Bros today to pick up my t/case gears a guy from ARB walked past me to leave, he had what looked like an airlocker in his hand.
Mark said he just had the first Pajero front airlocker prototype and it is to be fitted to one of the ARB engineers Paj's this week for testing.
Nothing went wrong at all they are just behind schedule...................
Apparently Mark cuts the side gears and other components for 90% of ARB airlockers.
He had just finshed the parts for the prototype Paj airlocker and it was assembled this afternoon. All the tooling has also been ordered to go into full production. June is still the release date.

Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane southside

you are too calm frank....... i would have rolled him for it!!!! lol

Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Location: USA

Ok Frank, so you can buy one of these for me, and ship it over for me right. I dont think I can wait another month for those to hit the us markets.

By the time they get over here it is going to be july or august, and my whole summer break from school will be over.

I'll include a finders fee for ya. Very Happy

Joined: 27 Oct 2003 Location: Redcliffe

I didn't know they were doin a back one for a 3.5. Sounds interesting!!!!

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

Of course Dougie, you send the $$$ over and I'll get you one hot of the machining centre and ship it over (swarf and all) Laughing

Swartzy want's me to do the same for him, does that surprise you at all Very Happy

Yes if the front locker sells ok they will develop the 3.5 V6 rear one.
We had 2 NP Paj's courtesy of Mitsu (new 3.8 V6 and 3.2 GDI) on display at the Wandin 4wd show yesterday at the Paj Club stand (big event) I was there all day and the front locker interest is certainly there especially for the newer Paj.

Joined: 04 Nov 2002 Location: perth western australia

the new pajs definatly need lockers , they say the traction control gives up the ghost once the brakes get hot.

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

It disappoints me the number of people on the Pajero Club forum discussing leaving the original tyres on, and letting the traction control do all the work.

The goal should be to not let the wheels spin in the first place, not rely on tricky mechanisms to compensate for you.

I can't see too many NP drivers buying lockers...

Scott

Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Location: Brisbane

We had two NP's out on the weekend for a bit of a drive. One attempted a very steep rockface with BFG AT's at about 20 PSI. It walked up there very smoothly but at the top (~50 meters) the traction control started going out to lunch. Another few meters of climb could have been interesting with open diffs!

The other one had street tyres at road pressure and on some steep loose dirt hills the car had plenty of wheelspin but still managed to keep going to the top. It managed to keep climbing at low speeds which I think would have had mine with the LSD stopped with wheelspin.

The traction control certainly is impressive but I wonder where its limits are in regard to length of operation before ceasing to work, and what is its recovery time after stopping. How long would you have to sit half way up a long hill before being able to proceed?

Still waiting for the front locker

John

Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Location: Alberta, Canada

So I'm assuming the one with wheelspin had the traction control turned off? Not sure I get what you mean about waiting for it to come back on though. If you're climbing a hill, I'd assume you're off the brakes...what would cause it to work sporadically? A previous poster alluded to brake heat shutting it off, but going up that shouldn't be an issue right...?

For that matter, maybe someone can explain the traction control system that the new Paj has? Embarassed

Is it controlled by the ABS system?

PHIL

Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Location: Golden Square

PHIL wrote:

So I'm assuming the one with wheelspin had the traction control turned off? Not sure I get what you mean about waiting for it to come back on though. If you're climbing a hill, I'd assume you're off the brakes...what would cause it to work sporadically? A previous poster alluded to brake heat shutting it off, but going up that shouldn't be an issue right...?

For that matter, maybe someone can explain the traction control system that the new Paj has? Embarassed

Is it controlled by the ABS system?

PHIL

Most traction controls systems activate the brakes to transfer power to the opposing wheel, using wheel speed sensors to do this. This is where the reference to the abs comes in as they share the sensor.
So even going up hill the brakes are going to be activated and getting hot if it is a hard hill.

Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Location: Brisbane

Yes, the traction control works by applying the brakes to the spinning wheel to transfer drive to the opposite wheel using a part of the ABS system. Under severe conditions it seems to stop working after a time, don't know if it is directly heat related or computer controlled to stop the brakes overheating.

The Paj with the wheelspin had the traction control on, and seemed to get up the hill with all four wheels spinning and then stopping in short bursts. It was a strange "scrambly " feeling but it certainly got there. It was able to climb the hills slower than the non - traction control cars which needed more momentum to get there.

John

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

My understanding, and I don't know how much of this applies to the Paj, is that in addition to braking the spinning wheel these systems also cut power to the engine (which is why it's on the fly-by-wire throttle on the 3.8 and not the mechanically throttled 3.5)

The brakes are applied using some "accumulator" to provide pressure to the relevant brake caliper. I don't undertand how these work, but I believe it is this mechanism which over-heats and shuts down the system, not the brakes themselves.

Avoid letting the wheels spin to start with, rather than stopping them once they start!

Scott

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

No matter what they do none of these gismo's will ever beat an across the axle diff lock Laughing

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

So, Frank, you're an all or nothing sort of bloke? Very Happy

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

Scott, I think it's very simple really, traction control does nothing to help vehicle control in fact you need momentum for it to function and then it can actually be a hindrance.
The slower you can drive an obstacle the less chance of damage and stress on the vehicle.

Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Location: USA

Bitsamissin wrote:

The slower you can drive an obstacle the less chance of damage and stress on the vehicle.

Soooooo THATS what I have been doing wrong. Shesh. Very Happy

My Rig · Joined: 08 Mar 2004 Location: North Rocks

Was tempted with the DiD NP. After hearing about Traction Control issues and putting Cooper ST-C's on the NM decided not to upgrade or at this stage (when its available) install a front locker .

Joined: 26 Oct 2002 Location: Melbourne

I can confirm that the front locker has been installed and has been rigorously tested with flying colours.
I have been told it is very similar to a heavy duty Dana 30 (which uses D-44/60 axles) airlocker that ARB make as an option for that diff. It is easy to upgrade to the Jeeps side gears which will take a 33.3mm axle (up from 28.8mm) so custom HD CV's/axles could be retrofitted.
June is still the release date for the front locker.
Also the 3.5 rear airlocker will eventually get developed in the next 12 months or so.

Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Location: Newcastle, NSW

Cool
maybe we should rename the thread to '....good news'

Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Brisbane southside

Good news.... thats the day when their is stock to supply me with one.....

Joined: 28 Jan 2004

No, good news is
1. when I have $2000 to get one,
2. When I manage to convince the wife we "need" one

Both are not easy, and I really am not sure which one is harder!

Smile

Jeff