About a year ago when I was changing out my 4.62 gears for 4.88s I welded the band that engaged the cogs into the locked position.  Note the stock air actuator placement inside the bearing cap.

I had Dave (Mr. Bubble gum welder) tac weld the ring in the four indents.  I read where others were ruminating about replacing the air actuator with a solid ring to keep the front diff "engaged" versus relying on the air pump and air actuator.  So I got to wondering about other ways to "permanently" lock the front diff and totally by-passing the air system so I took a die grinder and removed the four tac welds on the front 4.88 diff.  First of all it proved (to me) that the tac welding process is reversable if the tac welds are centered and small.  The radius of a 3" die grinder fits into the detents easily.

Noob question- does this make it like a locker only full time and does it affect turning in 4 wheel

No, this is not the same as welding the spyder gears.  These tac welds simply keep the cogs inter-locked so you have a "normal" 4 wheel drive - meaning you are really applying power to one front wheel normally, although occasionally you may grab both wheels if the traction is somewhat equal.  This simply provides you the same front wheel drive you would normally experience using the stock air actuated 4WD.  You will have an "open" diff.  The point to this mod is to eliminate reliance on and of the air pump and the air actuator ring.

And no, it doesn't affect turning like having a spool, locker or locked ARB in the front.

Disassembled the front diff.  Used a punch to mark the left and right sides and kept them physically separated to prevent crossing them up.  I use one dot for the passenger side and two punch dots for the driver side.  I mark the bearing caps, the round tension nut UNDER the lock, a punch mark on the ring and the diff to maintain alignment when assembled and also note the ring movement for future reference.  Pretty much the same actions you would take when you are installing a lock right locker.  Note the small size of the passenger side bearing cap compared to the driver side.  Remember, the housing is aluminum and so are these caps.  

After the passenger side diff bearing is removed (it must be pressed off), the air actuator, the spring, a shim and the actual band with the four paws that hold on to the cog gear can be removed, although each paw has to be pried from the inside of the carrier where the four paws clamp onto the cog.  OBTW, someone stated in an earlier thread they had blown some serious air into their actuator and it had held the pressure.  The tech books state the air pump generates 6-8 pounds of pressure to engage the front axle in 4WD drive mode.  I can attest that the air actuator can handle some serious pressure.   If the air actuator in your diff ever goes bad, I can't believe it would ever be from too much pressure from that wimpy pump.  It even got slightly bent during the bearing removal and still held air.

Removed the ring gear from the diff assembly.  Speaking of "cogs" here are those cogs that are meshed together in the front diff when your Tracker/GV is in 4WD mode.  Of note, there are only two spyder gears rotating on a single pin in these diffs (last pic) around the two driver gears.  In the first pic you can see the four tabs that those paws (I mentioned earlier above) clamp onto to pull the cog out of 4WD mode when you shift out of 4WD normally (using the air pump and actuator).  The fourth pic shows the cog removed from the housing and sitting on the lower cog.  The driver gear is sitting in the middle.  When these cogs are "meshed" there is actually a little play in them.  Maybe 1/32 of an inch?  I didn't measure it, I simply noted it.

So, after cleaning up the four removed tac welds and ensuring the cog inserted smoothly back into the housing, I carefully set the cover back down on top of the two meshed cogs.  You can tell they are fully meshed (you cannot observe the cogs with the cover in place) by sitting the cover directly down over the meshed cog gears and observing the height of the four protrusions.   Note how they barely clear the cover.  If they protrude more than this then your cogs gears are either not FULLY meshed or they aren't meshed at all.  In either case, double check them because once you go to the next step it will be very difficult to correct the error.

Next I loaded the diff into my Home 6's Honda and drove over to Dave (Mr. Bubblegum welder) and he laid 12 tac welds on this set up.  FOUR of the tacs covered the SAME area as was tac'd earlier.  

I suspect even this weld job is reversible... but I'm thinking it would take quite a bit of time with a Drimmel type grinding device to do it.

Next, since the air actuator was being eliminated, I decided to remove the air supply line where it entered the diff housing.  I unscrewed the inlet and replaced it with a short bolt with the threads coated in RV sealer.  The third pic shows the piece removed.

Layed a coat of RV sealer on the cleaned up banjo and let it set up while the diff was reassembled in reverse order....  minus the air actuator and the springs, etc.  The end results was a very much leaner looking diff.  The air actuator is held in place by two bolts (much larger than they appear to need to be) and virtually provide no structual strength to the diff... meaning the diff won't miss it being hung there.  The last pic is of the air actuator assembly that DIDN'T get re-installed.  

You can plainly see in the 2nd pic the amount of space the air actuator mechanism consumes within the diff housing and WHY an ARB or other locker won't work in these 2nd gen truck's front diffs.  You can also see WHY when you swap out one of these for a 1st gen truck's front diff you also have to make changes to your CV shaft lengths.  If you look closely in the last pic, down at the bottom, you can see the four spring paws I referenced earlier that hold on to the one cog gear which allows the spring to retract it when you shift out of 4WD normally.

Placed the diff back down into the housing, snugged the bolts, then coated the seal surfaces on the front housing with some grease and drove the driver side inner drive shaft back home, torqued down the diff-housing bolts  and then installed the front housing back into Buster (my truck) and filled with gear oil.  Plugged off the air pump line with RV sealer and a plastic plug.

Also, yesterday, removed the rear diff that we had installed the lock right into last November  and checked it for wear and tear.  I've put almost 11K on it since install and it hasn't missed a beat.  I've had zero troubles with it.  The only sign of wear that could be observed is ONE of the springs appeared to have been worn more than the other three like it... but it still functioned perfectly.  Reassembled and added fresh gear oil.  Since we didn't run the truck with the rear axle elevated this time (prior to operation) I checked it again this evening and the gear oil had finally penetrated internally and I needed to add more gear oil to top it off.  Also discovered my right rear emergency brake cable had been dragging and had ate at the brake shoe far more than the other three.   It's always something.  

Anyhoo, I drove over to my daughter's place and back into her woods, locked in the axles, put him in four low and creeped him all over the woods, through the brush and over short berms.  The 4WD worked great.  Look mom.... no air!

It's a little ironic (to me) that our trucklets have hefty 12 bolt rear diffs... and 10 bolt front diffs with a teeny tiny bearing cap on one side.  But I've said it before:  I think Suzuki engineering is greatly under rated in the automotive industry.  I love my trucklet!

Did you know that the 'newer' model GVs, (I figure 2004-2005) aluminium differential housing came with extra ribs (bracing) on them to help stop them from cracking under heavy loads..

If you look at the front differential under your truck, you will notice one rib running down the right side (vehicle left) of the pumpkin, on the banjo. My 2002 GV came with the one rib. The newer 2004+ 2nd gens came with three ribs and are MUCH stronger than the single rib design.

I broke 2 aluminium housings already while off roading and a good friend of mine who has the newer model has never broken his. He drives much harder than I do also.

Note the one rib running down the right side of the housing. (on both the steel & alu)


This one appears to have two ribs.. (I found the pics via a google search, so they are not ideal, but you get the idea)


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I used a thick rubber ring placed in between the air actuator and the dog clutch to keep my 4x4 engaged. I had initially tack welded the actuator in the engaged position, but I went about the welding all wrong and the welds broke out..

I welded the ring in place before assembling the gear set (silly me), and it was welded 'pushed in' a little too much. So when I assembled everything and bolted the ring gear on, it placed excessive stress on the clutch and broke the welds back out.   I was forced to use a rubber ring because I needed the 4x4 urgently and could not get access to a welder at the time.

So far the rubber ring I used is holding out and I have not gotten any problems as yet.