RCBasher.com - HPI Wheely King Mods

Wheely [sic] (hwee-lee) -noun: A stunt in which the front wheels of a vehicle are raised so that the vehicle is balanced momentarily on its rear wheels
King (king) -noun: a person or thing preeminent in its group or class

HPI Wheely King - Installing a Fixed Diff Locker

[Wheely King Info] [Wheely King Hop-Ups] [Wheely King Mods]

Installing a fixed diff locker is easy, just follow along...

Getting to the diff: The only time-consuming part of this project is getting TO the diff. The rest is very quick. You probably know the following, but to get there you'll need to pull the wheels, remove the lower shock and lower link pins, remove the screw holding the upper link to the bracket on the diff, and remove the steering rod screw if you're doing the front diff. That'll get the diff housing out of the truck. Next, remove the four screws (two on each end) holding the, ummm, the big round things to the axle housing. Don't remove the knuckles from the big round things, there's no need. Then remove the two screws holding each wraparound shock/link mount to the axle.

At this point your axle housing should be pretty bare. There's no need to remove the upper link mount bracket. Now remove the four screws near the center of the housing holding the housing halves together. The housing can now come apart and diff case should practically fall out.

Diff work:

All you need to do is remove the four screws holding the ring gear to the diff cup...

...and the internal gears will be exposed...

Remove the internal gears and set them aside. You will no longer need them, but hang onto them in case you change your mind about the locker. You do still need the cross pin for the locker project if you use an Axial #30440 locker, however. Wipe off any excess grease from the inside of the ring gear and diff cup. It doesn't need to be spotless, but there will be no relative motion inside the diff, so the grease serves no purpose.

Slide the pin through the round hole in the Axial locker.

Drop the locker into the diff cup with the cross pin slid into the appropriate slots in the cup

Now reinstall the ring gear using the four screws you removed previously. It's a good idea to slide the driveshafts into the diff assembly and into the locker itself before tightening down the ring gear's screws. The locker can be installed slightly cockeyed which will prevent you from being able to install the driveshafts, so take a few extra seconds to do this.

That's it! You now have a locked diff. Install it in the axle housing with the axles and axle bearings just like it came out, and resinstall in the truck. Repeat the procedure for the other axle if you wish.

Have fun with the new-found traction!

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