hey guys, i have an 86 dodge with a dana 44 front axle with the vacume accuator. is there a way to bypass this or can you put a plug in the axle to make it lock into 4wheel. mine was popping in/out of 4 wheel drive and now will not even lock in. it has locking hubs and i checked them and they are fine. it started popping on the driver side before it quit. does anyone have any suggestions to fixing this.

 

There are several ways to deal with this. You can repair the vacuum system. You can replace the vacuum system with a manual axle locking system. Since you have locking hubs you can permanently lock the axles. Choose one and I will help you with it.

 

great, thanks for a fast reply. manual locking or permanetly locking would be a way i would like to go.

 

To permanently lock the axles you must remove the vacuum motor assembly from the axle tube. Inside you will find an actuator fork on a shaft that is held in position by c-clips. Remove the c-clip along side the fork on the side away from the vacuum motor. Slide the fork over and reinstall the c-clip in the same groove. This will lock the fork as far from the vacuum motor as possible. Now reach inside the axle tube opening and slide the shift collar as far to the passenger side as you can. You may have to turn the left front tire to align the axle splines. Reinstall the vacuum motor assembly and the axles will be permanently locked.

Here is a link that will give you manual control over the axle locking.

http://www.4x4posi-lok.com/app_dodge.html

 

You're spot on there SEAL. I switched back to the "solid" shaft, as I call it. Had here, so there wasn't any out-of-pocket money, to speak of, for switching things around.

I spoke of this in another thread, but here I go again.

I used a "solid" shaft 44 out of a '80 1/2 ton. and I switched out knuckles, rotor/hubs. and i gained 6' , in overal axle width, compared to factory. Which (I think) really helped this past winter. Look at a 4x4 modified truck puller. the front axle is about a tire wider on each side. Which makes sense.

 

awesome SEAL. i really appreciate you putting in the effort to help a newb.