Hi all. i am new to the forum so I appologize if this has been covered in the past...i bought a used 2000 1500 4X4 last year and have been slowly getting things together. i am now stuck on the 4X4 not engaging. I can feel the difference in the trans-speed, but there is no dash light and the 4 wheel is definitly not engaged.

Someone had suggested that it could be as simple as a fuse being bad. is this possible? If so, which fuse is it? i have no owner's manual.

Thanks in advance,
Brian Drew

 

Can you move the lever to the selected area? If so bad vacuum soleiniod? Binding in he linkage or worse binding the the case itself could be give a lil more detail. With the truck running an no background noise is there any noise like it is trying to engage?

 

Yes. i can move the lever to 4wh and 4wl. I in 4wl I can feel the truck won't go past 25mph. in 4wh u can hear a slight squeek and feel a slight difference in steering.

Other than that...i know nothing...

 

By saying you feel a difference in steering it sounds like its engaging correctly. Why do you feel it is not engaging at all (besides the light not coming on which could be simply a bad bulb)?

 

because, at a standstill, in the snow and with witnesses, I have no front wheel rotation when giving gas...

in a different thread someone mentioned checking the fuse, which on is the fuse that "closes the circuit"?

 

Did you drive it a bit before checking, with witnesses, to see if it was engaged or not? It doesn't engage instantly, it takes it a couple seconds or so of movement to get the gears/teeth/whatever lined up right so it can lock the axles together.

If not, engage 4WD on a slippery road/surface/whatever and drive it for a few feet (forward or reverse). Then see if it engaged.

 

It sounds like the CAD is not engaging. Check your vacuum lines to it. That's the first thing. If ALL of your vacuum lines are good and no breaks or kinks, it's probably the CAD itself. You 'feel' the engagement in the t-case. That's only sending power to the front. The front is not engaging and that's why you have no wheel spin (both sides, if one side spins it is working correctly and your bulb is out).

 

being non mechanical, but willing to learn, where would i find the CAD? I saw a picture of it in an alternate post, just want to make sure I don't spend hours looking in the wrong place.

Brian

 

alright, do this, have someone sit in the truck for you and put it in 4x4 (either hi or lo) then have them drive forward really slowly, from the driver-side wheel well you can see an axle shaft going to the front axle. If that axle shaft is spinning, then that means your transfer case engaged the four wheel drive, if it is not spinning (and doesn't start spinning after driving for a little bit) then it is your transfer case. If it does spin, the next step is to look at the U-joints which are located at each of the wheels, try to walk in front of the truck and look to see if those are spinning, if they are NOT spinning wihch is probably the case, then you need to check the CAD which is the part that engages the front axle (sort of like the HUBS engaging in fords) the cad is located on the passenger side of the front axle on the back. It is a little square looking thing with two vacuum lines running to it. You can reach it by creeping under the truck behind the front passenger wheel. My first step would be, check the vacuum lines all the way to where they go to the transfer case to see if there aren't any broken pieces since they are plastic, mine were brittle and broken i had to replace them (mopar/dodge dealer 55 bucks) If they're fine, then you probably need to take the CAD out which is easy to do a couple of bolts, clean the vacuum hook ups and suck or blow into them and see if you feel anything move or if it makes the lever harder to move. It sounds like maybe the vacuum isn't engaging either because its not getting a vacuum or because the actually vacuum powered actuator is broken.

 

if u are by yourself an easy test to see what is not occurring is to have the engine off and engage ur transfer case with the engine off. then lay under the front of the truck and try to rotate the driveshaft. if it dont turn then ur transfer case is working fine. if it does, rebuild time probably. then jack up the front end and put it on blocks. start the truck and engage the 4x4. leave the truck running in park if its an auto. neutral if standard. make sure the truck cannot roll because u will be down by the axle. now u have to wedge a block of wood under the drivers side wheel so it wont try to turn through the differential action when doing ur test. rotate the passenger side tire forward and back a couple rotations slowly if it will rotate. if it dont rotate or it goes for a bit then locks up. ur 4x works. if nothing happens and u can rotate it till ur blue in the face, then u have to check ur vacuum tubes and ur actuator. a while ago my actuator died on me and instead of getting another actuator i ordered this cable shifter that is much more reliable. its around 200 bucks for the shifter and the cable gets routed into the cab and it has a push pull button for u to manually shift it in. it works great and it allows u to drive in 4 low without engaging ur front axle. giving u 2low. works great for if ur driving slowly on hard ground where 4x is not reccomended. hope that helps. I'll try n find the link for the site of the cable shifter.