ChrisG

I recently installed one of these units from just differentials in my front axle. It has 4 wires coming out of it but from what I have heard, I only need 2 to make it work. Does anybody have any info on this? Can I just wire it up with a switch or does it need a relay of some sort? What about voltage?

TBittner

how hard was the install?

Hillbilly Delux

i think i would go to dodge and order the factory harness and switch

trksrfun

my guess would be you only need 2 to activate the locker and the other 2 to de-activate the locker. as hillbilly said i would go to dodge and see if you could get the factory harness or at least crawl under a power wagon and take a look see how they have it set up. somethin like that i would use a relay better safe then sorry.

ChrisG

Sorry, bad choice in words, I had a shop do the install..... I came through the front diff cover with a rubber grommet and silicon and installed a drain plug in the front diff cover so I would not have to remove the pan again to change the oil. So far, no leaks. I wanted to drill the housing, but I could not get a drill in there without dropping the axle. I went to a local dodge dealership and they were not very helpfull in finding the wiring harness. He kept wanting to get my vin and I could not get it through his head that it was a carrier swap. Maybe I will try again with a different parts guy. From what I understand, the factory wiring on the power wagon is tied into the front swaybar disconnect and olny lets the locker engage in 4 low under 3 mph and it is locked out in 4 hi. I don't know, I guess I'll keep searching for info on it.

Big C

I have the dodge sevace manual on disk. I don't know how i can get the manual on here but here are the wires and what they do:

yellow/grey locker sensor supply
yellow/orange front locker source
yellow/lt blue front locker sensor sence
yellow/lt green front locker return


so it looks like the sensor supply and sensor sence are for the light on the dash. I would give power to the yellow/orange and ground yellow/lt green. If it was me i would use a relay

hope this helps

adventuris

i think on dodgeforum.com there was a guy making a wiring harness for the front lockers to bypass factory because or the in 4 low only low speed sensor

Dan Marino

Are you sure you didnt get the Eaton locker from the shop? Cause unless something has changed I was told that there was no possibility that the power wagon locker would work on the cummins from several different people and shops. And this is why i went with Eaton's E locker.

Of course I guess this could be the trac rite that was under the cummins power wagon in diesel power...but i didnt think it was being mass produced yet.

ajpulley

According to the parts manual, it's the same axle, with different carriers. In fact, you can buy one at DTS. Did you ever think to contact AAM?

Dan Marino

apparently you missed my whole locker saga a few years back I contacted everyone - I mean every body and thats why I am so surprised that it works. Apparently I didnt contact the right person.

ChrisG

I bought this one : http://www.justdifferentials.com/ind...oducts_id=2469 I was under the impression that the power wagons did use the tracrite el from aam, but I don't know.

I wasn't there for the install, so I don't know how it went but there was no grinding done that I could see. I checked out the dodge forum and found a way to bypass the 4 lo olny speed sensor, but not a way to wire it up from scratch. I am still searching it. The wire colors are also different from the ones listed; they are red, black, yellow and white. I guess I could try contacting aam, but I seriously doubt that they would respond. It's probably so simple to do a monkey could wire it up, but I am just being cautious.

ajpulley

Yup. What happened?

Dan Marino

I guess it wasnt that big of a deal but I do remember beingsome.

I got pumped to use the power wagon locker. I was told by AAM, Dodge and local dealers that it wouldnt work. So I settled for the Eaton. After months of calling lots of distributers I finally secured one from Randy's Ring and Pinion. And then waited several more months for it to come in. We got it and it was labor intensive to put in. There was lots of grinding in the axle to make it fit - even though the description to put it in the AAM Dodge axle reported 'light grinding'. The grinding came through the back of the housing and I had to braze in a patch.

The wiring was simple though. and it works very well. I think I have around 80 hooks sled pulling on it. I have used it at the beach in sand and also in the mud and snow.

Edit: Wow I just looked back at the old threads and it really was a freaking saga. I forgot about alot of it till I read it. There was even some real good debates about the rearends being Limited slip or 'locker'. I understand that it is but my truck 'locks' nicely on the rear axle since I have had it.

ajpulley

read through my '05 FSM and FPM and this is what I discovered. The front locker on the Power Wagon involves the following components:

• Final Drive Control Module (FDCM)
• Front Locker Solenoid (locker)
• Axle Lock Switch (ALS)

The ALS and the locker with the FDCM, but not with each other. Selecting a locked status is done by resistance recognition; a predetermined resistance is interpreted by the microprocessor to select a specified action. That being said, you've got a lot of expensive components to acquire to utilize the factory front locker.

However, the locker itself appears to be simple enough. Of the four wires, two are for sensing the lock/unlock status, and two are for engaging/disengaging. These two are colored yellow w/ orange and yellow w/ light green in an '05 FSM. According to the diagnostic procedures, voltage should be present on these two wires when the ALS or DRBIII is set to engage the front locker. The resistance between the two should be a low resistance, but above 100Ω when not energized. It would appear to me that the locker is somewhat similar to an Eaton E-locker in that a electro-magnetic coil is energized to mechanically engage the locker. I would also make an educated guess that, with a relay and an indicator lamp, you could also have a dummy light inside the cab if you wanted to utilize the sensor. Those wires are yellow w/ light blue and y w/ grey, again according the the '05 FSM. These two wires should have an infinite resistance or show as a short, depending on if the sensor is normally open or normally closed while the locker is in a normal, disengaged status.

In addition to the wrecking yards, you might try getting one here. I'm trying to obtain some more information, and if I do, I'll post it.

ajpulley

That sucks. The only thing I can think of is maybe AAM changed the casting slightly in the 9.25s to accommodate the locker when added for the Power Wagons. That axle assembly didn't exist in '03.