My style of riding has me frequently wishing that I had a fully locked up diff before a certain obstacle is approached. So I've been working on a way to solve this problem.
I have at the moment (thanks to a mate of mine) a near new front diff out of an 08 vintage machine in pieces on my work bench.
The first idea I explored was to understand just how the Visco system worked and see if I could modify it to work better as in the 2010 machines. Now that I've seen how it is machined and operates I've decided it would be to much hit and miss involved in getting it to work faster. From another forum member I noticed that he has done a conversion to the 2010 unit at a fairly hefty price and while it has made a big improvement it still requires wheel spin to operate it.
I am about to machine up a prototype of my idea in the next week or two. My plan is to remove all of the silicone pump system out of the diff and replace it with an electric over hydraulic system. The part that does the actual locking of the axle will be reused as we know that it is effective at doing it's job. Doing it the way I propose will mean that the diff lock should be able to be engaged at any speed without fear of damage to the drive train. This can be achieved due to the fact that it's simply applying pressure to a clutch pack instead of trying to align splines etc.
What sort of actuation system would people prefer? Cable operated, Hydraulic lever or a handle bar mounted switch. I've ruled out the use of compressed air as I've found that to be to unreliable, much like the ARB style airlocker that is designed for the 4x4 industry. I got sick of fixing them over the years with faulty pumps, leaking solenoids, leaking "O" rings etc.
My preference at this stage is to aim for a handle bar switch to operate a motor drive similar to the 4x4 actuator which is then coupled to a hydraulic cylinder. I even thought that with some trick electronics and wheel mounted stator rings that the diff lock could be controlled much like traction control ,where it senses wheel spin and varies lock up pressure.

Any way that's what I plan on doing so lets hear some ideas and what you think of the concept.
Edited by ozymax, 06 October 2009 - 05:56 AM.