In the four wheelin' community, Tractech has long been known for building what is arguably the strongest locking differential available...The Detroit Locker. It is a fully automatic locking differential that replaces the original carrier for improved strength.

For us "do-it-yourself'ers", the Detroit Locker, along with any limited slip diffs, is essentially out of our league. This is because you need to have experience in setting up diffs to properly do the installation. Setting up ring and pinion gears is not for the faint of heart. Among other things, setting the proper backlash is critical in order to keep the gears from chewing themselves to pieces.

However, the Lock-Rite locker and Tractech's Detroit EZ-Locker came to market. They are fully automatic lockers that reuse the stock carrier and only replace the spider gears. This was great for us "shadetree" mechanics, but these lockers had their problems...mainly, they are noisey and in most cases, are only warrantied for tires up to 32" tall...(at least on a Dana 35C)

Finally, after years of waiting, Tractech finally introduced it's Detroit Gearless Locker...it's claims are ease of installation, noiseless operation and strength (no tire size limit). Andrew wanted a locker for the trail, but didn't want the noise on the street. The Gearless Locker sounded perfect...It's about as easy to install as a Lock-Rite, yet stronger and without most of the typical locker quirks.

The locker also comes with decent instructions and an installation video...this helped quite a bit. It even comes with a special silencer fluid to help eliminate any noises from the new differential.

So, on a beautiful Saturday morning, Andrew, Phil and I started the job. The first step in any project is to crack open a Bass Ale, but as it was 8 AM, we decided to postpone that tradition...

Note: We have been told by a few sources that the TJ's use the Gearless Locker for the ABS equipped Dana 35C carrier REGARDLESS if you have ABS or not...therefore, we purchased the Gearless Locker for the ABS Dana 35C even though he does not have ABS.

First. we chocked the front wheels and jacked up the rear of the TJ. Whatever you do, don't tell Andrew that his Jeep is leaning...

Check out those Old Man Emu shocks...Andrew puts at least one coat of wax on them daily!

Next, we removed the drums off the rear axle...as Andrew had not checked his brakes yet, there are a few retainer clips that need to be removed...a screwdriver and pliers do the job nicely...

With the drums out of the way, you can crack the differential case by removing the 10 bolts and breaking the seal with a screwdriver. This will allow the oil to drain...preferably into a pan rather than letting the neighbors cat lap it up...

Next, we remove the cross-pin retainer screw and the cross shaft itself...luckily, ours came out easily.

With the cross shaft out of the way, you can push the two axle shafts in as far as they will go...this will allow you to see the C-clips. Remove each C-clip...this will allow you to slide out the axle shafts...

Once this is done, you can remove the bearing caps...

After the bearing caps are removed, I decided to remove the spider gears and thrust washers...they are not going to be reused (the Gearless Locker replaces them) and I thought we could use the space. We then used a pry-bar and inserted one end of it into the carrier. This allowed us to pry the entire carrier/ring gear out of the carrier...and believe me, you WILL have to put some muscle into it. Liquid Wrench helped a lot...

When pulling out the carrier, remember to keep track of the shims on either side. These WILL need to be put back exactly as you found them unless you want to re-setup your gears...ack!

Note: After you remove the carrier, get one of your buddies to clean the inside of the housing and the diff cover. We used carb cleaner. Scrap off all traces of the old gasket as well.

Next, set the carrier on your workbench with the ring gear side down. Remove the elastic band around the Gearless Locker and separate the two halves of the locker. Make sure you DON'T do what we did and let the side gear and clutches get misaligned and fall out. If you keep each half together as it was in the box, you should have no problems.

First, install one side of the locker into the bottom of the carrier. Make sure the side gear is seated at the bottom and the case half is also all of the way down...this will only happen if the clutches are lined up correctly.

Next, install the upper half of the locker...this is tricky, but make sure you keep the clutches and side gear together...once inside the carrier, use the supplier gear puller to hold the side gear all of the way up while holding the case half up as well...if all goes well, you should be able to slide the included cardboard spacer inserts into the c-clip slots. This will hold the side gear and case half into it's location.

The next fun part involves inserting the two springs into their locations on either side of the locker. This requires a crescent-type wrench...essentially you need a wrench without teeth so that once you have compressed the spring to the height of the spring location, you place the wrench along side the opening and tap the springs so that they move from the wrench to their final resting place.

Be sure to wear eye protection unless you're dying to look like a pirate as you walk around with an eye patch...

With the springs in place, you're ready to reinstall the carrier. You can use a dead blow hammer or rubber mallet to tap (err...pound) the carrier back into place...alignment is critical here and make sure you put the shims back where they belong. We then tightened up the bearing caps to factory specs.

Here's the carrier back in the housing.

The next step involves pushing in the axle shafts until the ends of them touch the cardboard inserts. Do this one at a time. After pushing in each axle shaft, remove the piece of cardboard and insert the c-clip into the slot.

Finally, insert the new cross shaft included with the locker and the old shaft retaining screw.

Note: In our case, when we went to install the new cross shaft, it would hit the ends of the axle shafts. We could not pull the shafts out far enough. Well, with some jiggling of the axle shafts while playing with the locker case halves, we were finally able to correctly seat the side gear so that the cross pin would clear. Obviously, this is much easier if you install the locker correctly on your bench...

Finally, we used some Permatex gasket maker and reinstalled the cover.

Then, use the supplied silencer fluid and fill up the diff with good quality lube.

Once Andrew takes this baby off-road, i'll update you on how it does. On-road, however, it is simply amazing for a locker. It is completely quiet. The only time you'll hear anything is if you floor it around a corner and roast the inside tire.

The other quirks are typical of any locker: Tire chirping when going around sharp corners under throttle or the occasional tail wag when you shift in the middle of accelerating around a corner. These are all things that can be eliminated with some changes to your driving style.

For the last few months, Andrew has been THRILLED with his Gearless locker. However, about 2 weeks ago, he picked up some 33x12.5 Super Swamper SSR's for the trail. Somehow, the locker did NOT like this and proceeded to lock permanently followed by itself grenading and taking the pinion and carrier with it.

Notice how half of the locker is now residing at the bottom of the housing...

Here's a shot showing how the outside case broke and left the clutches and side gear behind...

Here's the pieces we pulled from the housing...we still can't find the other orange spring...

Lastly, here's two shots of the carnage that ensued ...the damaged pinion gear, ring gear and carrier...

This is bad, but Tractech has offered to either replace the unit with another gearless or upgrade Andrew to a full Detroit C-locker...(he chose the latter...) They also offered to pay for all of the labor to have it installed and to pay to replace his ring and pinion gears. So, no out of pocket expenses and he ends up with a full Detroit. It's good to see a company back their products...