Flash Off-Road

Auburn ECTAD Electric Lockers
Detroit Locker Article
© Copyright 2005 Chuck Kopelson 07/18/2005
Courtesy of Scot Smith Updated 07/19/2005

An Auburn installed in your diff will cost you about 1450.00.

The kit looks to be pretty complete. It includes, all of the necessary wiring, plenty of connectors, wire ties, loom, fuses, LSD additive and the unit itself. The kit does not come with any sort of switch plate or place to mount the switch. The installation instructions are pretty basic and many will likely be left to figure some things out on their own. They could have done a better job on this. The quality of the differential appears to be first rate.

The diff is a cone style limited slip and a fairly aggressive one at that. I think that most folks that are used to Torsens and BTMing should be quite pleased with the Auburn’s limited slip capabilities. They have fairly specific lubrication requirements. Use only 80w-90 gear lube (NON-SYNTHETIC) and also require usage of special limited slip additive (included). The instructions say to only use the Auburn additive, but any good LSD additive, like the Ford stuff, will suffice.

The mechanism is actuated by a large electromagnetic coil on the left side of the unit, opposite the ring gear. When power is applied, the coil will lock up the unit. I understand that the system can be somewhat sensitive to the quality of the power source, so one should choose a circuit that does not have a heavy load on it. (Don’t wire it in on your stereo circuit or headlights.) Someone with a better understanding of the Hummer’s electrical system should feel free to offer a suggestion in this area.

Overall, I think the Auburn will be quite comparable to the factory Eatons in function and quality while at a much lower price. The only real difference I see is that the wiring for the Eatons is designed to take instruction from the truck’s computer regarding when it can and can’t be locked (safety type stuff.) None of that will be present with the Auburn unit.

 

Here is the locker and all of the other pieces of the kit that come with it.

Here is the locker by itself. Looks to be well made and the internal gears look pretty stout compared to the Torsen's.

Ring gear and carrier bearings installed.
I drilled the hole for the harness to exit in the same place I always do for the ARB's. This left less slack in the wires than I would have liked to have had. DIYers should take note here. Drilling the hole where I have marked will give you a little more slack in the wires to play with.
The big fun comes with installing the locker and setting up backlash. Apparently the bearing journals on the Auburn are machined a little differently than the stock Torsen and the Detroits. The original shims were way too thick to even be able to get the unit into the housing. Even trying the thinnest AMG shims that are available wasn't helpful. We will be supplying a special set of shims with these units and again DIYers need to be aware that a complete backlash setup will be required to install this unit yourself.

Setting up the diff:

I had to use about .055" on the left side and about .095" on the right side. The thinnest AMG shims are in the .070"-.075" range (I don't have the specs in front of me.) Depending on what shims are in your unit, you *may* be able to reuse one of them on the right side. Carrier preload of .008" is a good target to shoot for, however this is not nearly as important as other settings, and having a little less or a fair amount more is not a problem in most cases.