I have a 2001 ram 2500 4x4 that the 4x4 will not engage in. Worked fine this morning. Pulled it out of the garage, locked it in and drove it 20 miles with no problems. Truck sat in the cold all day, started it up, still in 4wd, and it worked fine. Disengaged it and drove 20 miles, then tried to engage it from full stop and it goes in at the transfer case with stick on the floor, but the light doesn't come on in the dash and it doesn't lockin front differential?

Any suggestions? Haven't had any problems with it before. Didn't see any problems with vacum lines going to the actuator. Any way to test the acuator to see if it works?

Anyone tried the manual engage add on like the posi-lock to lock in the front differential?

THANKS!!!!

 

Dumb question, since you didn't say in your description of the problem: Did you give it a little time to kick in? The gears have to get "in sync" with each other to lock it in, sometimes it has to move a little bit to engage/disengage.

 

I tried it every way that I could think of to try to get it to engage. Tried from a stop, moving in forward and reverse, running, key off, you name it, I tried it.

 

Cold weather can cause the actuator to stop working. I went to the posi-lok to avoid the problem as well. I've heard of other people have the CAD stop working because they drove through some water and it lost the vacuum.

 

Is there anyway to test the actuator to see if that is the problem?

Anyone else have the 4x4 not engaging with a different problem?

Still interested in hearing about other products like the posi-lock that eliminates the vacum? Any one have any experience with these?

 

http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/..._engagment.htm

best and safest way to test it is to put it up on 4 jack stands, on a very level, stable place.
put an assistant in the drivers seat
get under the truck
check vac lines for proper operation
check front drive shaft for t-case engagement and rotation
check passenger wheel for lockup/drive.
don't trust the light to actually mean anything. it can be faulty.

if the t-case and vac lines all work right, but still no lockup,
remove the cad and see whats going on with cad, fork, coupler, axles, etc.
there's not a lot to it.

when you get tired of screwing around with it, get one of these.
https://dodgeforum.com/m_718119/tm.htm