You should feel some resistance when spinning the front wheels while the truck is up but not to the point that you need to put extreme effort into spinning them. If they are that hard to turn, there is something wrong. My driver side wheel was crazy hard to spin. I had a bad bearing. I replaced it, well the whole hub assembly, and it turned relatively smooth.

 

ok so i checked out the right front wheel a little more today. wheel is super hard to turn. took the wheel off and the brake caliper off to rule out the brakes sticking. the only way i could get the assembly to turn was with a screw driver in between studs. some of the rotation was smooth and then it binds up so i am just wondering if the wheel bearing is bad because it does not bind throughout the whole spin. could it be the cv shaft?? i checked the diff. fluid and it is good. any help appreciated greatly.

 

Do you have the suspension at full drop? If you do I bet what your experiencing is the CV axle binding up at that high angle. That is why it is tight then loose. It is tight when it hits one one the CV joints. What you should do is place the jack under the control arm. Then try turning it. And without the tire it will be harder to turn. The leverage is what makes it easy. Put the wheel back on with the brakes off and spin by hand. I bet it will be easy to do it.

 

hey guys i got the wheel figured out. it was the hub assembly with the bearings. now for the 4wd again. in the manual that i have it says that there is supposed to be a box attached to the front axle housing on the right side that has a motor that controls a shift fork for the axle. axle does not have anything like that attached to it. where else do i need to look or where else does the front axle engage. i put the truck up in the air. in 2wd the front dirveshaft does not spin nut once in 4hi it does but the front wheels do not move.

 

One easy way of checking to see if 4x4 is engaging is put the transmission in neutral and the transfer case in 4hi or 4lo. Jack the rear axle up so just the rear tires are off the ground and try to spin the driveshaft by hand. It may have some play in it, but it shouldn't turn far because the front wheels still being against the ground will lock it in place.

And obviously once the driveshaft meets resistance and stops turning, don't try too hard to keep turning it or you may end up rolling the truck forward off the jack.