G80 Locker. any good?
 

Im lookin to get a zr2 and ive read that the G80 lockers are crap. Just wondering if anyone has had any experences(good or bad) with the G80.

g80's can not engage once they get older... but I'd rather have a g80 than an open diff. plus I think the g80 in the zr2's are better since the rear axles on zr2's are 8.25 inch instead of the regular blazers with the 7.65 inch. but if you were looking for a more reliable locker you could always get a detriot...

Yeah any locker is better than nothing! haha i might upgrade it eventually if it gives me problems. Thanks for the response!

If you get it and it fails just get a locking differential and make 90% of us envious :)

Haha i got big plans. May take a few years but i plan on doin alot to it. First on the list is actually getting the zr2! Lmao

i think ive had about 5 of them total. the one in my 14bolt now is the only one i had that isnt broken. all the other ones were parts trucks or whatever and upon inspection of the axles they were always broke one way or another

I almost got one when I switched ring and pinion sets but it wasn't the right one for my axle. In what I've researched they are decent units. But they do have parts that wear and they do fail after years of use. They fail quicker if abused. Sudden locking of the unit when under high torque can shatter the unit and cause damage to alot of diffrent parts.

My buddies truck had a G80 grenade on him. But this truck (94 K1500 fullsize pickup with a vortec TBI 4.3L) had been abused. Had 35x12.50 tires with factory high gearing. I think it was 3.23 or something like that, manual trans. Caked mud underneath it. Used alot as a farm truck. So it had been abused before it failed. Replaced the gear set with a 4.56 ratio and a full time locker and he loves it.

Just as a suggestion, if you end up not getting the eaton G80 unit. I've been looking at the Detroit Trutrac locker. It's a posi like the G80, but it's a helical design so it doesn't have swinging weights or other wearable and prone to failure parts. Claims to need no maintaince, runs around $389. Just a thought.

For the majority of people, the G80 works and works well. If you get into serious offroading or just do stupid stuff, you can break them, but the same thing goes for other differentials.

If I need to replace the G80 in my Tahoe, I will be putting in an Detroit Truetrac. That truck will never be a dedicated offroad vehicle so I won't be going with a true locker. The K5 will get Detroit lockers front and rear at some point (once I find a D60 for the front).

This answers my question perfectly. I wont be doing any Serous offroading, just weekend trips and small stuff like that so the G80 seams like it will work just fine. And if it breaks, ill just replace it with a Detroit! Haha

Mine is working good so far. I never would have known what it was if I hadn't read about it here on the forum.