Hi all, thought I would post some info about installing a locker in front axle of a second gen tracker. Mine is a 2000 Chevy Tracker originally a 1.6l 5 speed manual with 5.12 diff gears.
I put in a 2004 Aerio 2.3 with a 4 speed automatic, lock rite locker in rear diff, manual hubs in front and deleted the SOTF. It already had 2.75" suspension lift from PO.
I use this car primarily for dunes and desert trails. It has 30" desert explorer paddle tires on it front and rear. Did real good but was planning a trip to the Oregon Coast sand dunes and if I wanted even half a chance of keeping up with friends Can Am I needed a locker up front too. After much reading here and other sites, and doing some research I discovered that Zuks Offroad
and Trail Tough both put together a custom 4 pin front carrier with a locker already installed in it and set up correctly.
So the condensed version of this mod is: find an inner axle shaft from a 96-98, it is slightly shorter. Got mine from hwy83suzukisalvage.com $29. Find or buy a new pass. side CV axle for
a 96-98. Bought a new one from Rock Auto $32. Get the new front locker, you will need to get new bearings or properly remove your old ones from the carrier and re-use them (I did)
Get some new seals. Before you take the old carrier out check the backlash and write it down, I think mine was .008 take the ring gear and bearings off the old carrier. Throw old carrier away.
There is nothing useful in there, the side gears are different. Put ring gear and bearings on new carrier, put it in and set backlash, no need to mess with pinion depth. Snap in the new inner axle after replacing seals and its ready to go back in.
Now you need to make and modify a couple things. First you will need to strap the snout of the diff housing down to the crossmember in the car. Get a piece of steel flat bar about 1 1/2" x 10"
and 1/8 to 3/16 thick, bend it so it wraps around the snout, drill a hole each end to bolt it to the existing mount bushing on driver side and to the hole you will drill on the pass. side. Also needed is a piece of good solid rubber between the snout and crossmember. I used a piece of 5/8" thick conveyer belt material.
Next is modify the new CV axle. Take the boot off the stub axle end and clean it all up. save all that grease and put it all back in when your done. take the snap ring off the end of the axle so you can pull the tripod out about a half to 3/4 inch. Weld the tripod sleeve to the axle ( make sure the boot is on) and put it back together. Slide hub end into the steering knuckle, put the axle housing on a jack, slide the stub axle end into the housing, and then maneuver the whole thing into place. No need to take the front suspension apart. Bolt that snout down to the crossmember good.
You will need to check for binding in the CV joints with suspension at full droop. Mine with the 2 3/4" lift was starting to bind right at the last 1/2" or so, I fabbed up a limiter cable so it can not
droop far enough to bind. It was the cheapest CV axle Rocky's sells, maybe a better quality one would have the steel ball type joint like the stock axle, I don't know, my limiter strap solved the problem in my case. Oh and also put in a set of manual hubs if you haven't already.
After running it hard at the dunes for a week I had no mechanical problems at all it worked perfectly. Got lots of surprised looks from the big dollar go cart crowd. "Howd he get up here?!"
Usual disclaimers apply> this is just what I did, don't blame me if you do it too and hurt yourself > for informational purposes only> don't die> don't spill your beer.
