warning this isa littlelengthy
so i went out and bought the CAD cable kit made by 4x4 posi-lok. My vacuum actuated system was having issues, i ended replacing all the parts and the inner shaft within the last 4 months and not all at the same time. parts ended up costing about 500 in total, needless to say i can dissasemble the passenger side of the front axle very fast now. i heard about the cad cable kit and thought it couldn't be any worse than the vacuum actuato

ok to the posi-lok; first off i don't recommend this unit to anyone, ended up being more of a headache than it was worth. the instructions say 30min install ha. not sure how many times they installed this to get those numbers. Items that would make the install easier, 90 degree drill and a rubber neck. also the instructions are kind of poor and lackeda few steps. the template they give you for drilling a hole in the fire wall is crap i could of eyeballed it better. they give you all these warnings about it and i still ended up hiting the firewall webing going by there instructions. i installed as per the instructions. after i got it installed i tryed it out, it lasted about 5 min before the button popped back in. ok so i thought it wasn't adjusted right. the big red **** that you pull out or in to actuate the axle can be screwed in or out and it allows foradjustment at least that is the only reason i could think that they would have it do this. Ok so adjusted the **** and turned it all the way counter clockwise which would of pulled the actuator arm and should have fully engaged the axle sleeve. i tried it again and it seemed to work fine. so i thought i had fixed all my 4x4 problems whoo hoo, oh was i mistaken. so the next day i hooked up our woodchipper and planned on a full day of chippin wood on the farm since the limbs had been there since the 4x4 went out(out woodchipper weights probably 5-6k). i have a coffee farm in Hawaii so having a diesel without 4x4 is worthless all you do is spin your rear tires and eat up very expensive mud tires. So about 2 hours into chipping i hit a reasonably steep hill and im climbing up it fine when all the sudden i hear a loud "POP" and the button pops in again and i loose 4wheel drive in a very bad position, so immedietly my back tires start to spin and the rear end slides to the left and the truck gets pinned in between some trees. ok the mud in hawaii is like no other it is almost clay and it will fill any mud terrain tire, i know ive tried a lot of them, and since it rains everyday the ground is always wet. 3 hours later i was able to get the truck and the chipper out without the 4 wheel drive. needless to say i wasn't happy. i then managed to get stuck 6 other times throughout the day because the 4 wheel drive would pop out while in drive and this was all while i was trying to get back to the house to inspect the actuator.
so once at the house i tear into the front end it appears that the actuator wasn't retracting far enough and the force of the axle made it pop out and managed to bend the actuator shaft. Ok so i straightened the shaft and adjusted the it so that it was almost always engaged there is quite a bit of adjuting that one can do with it. This time it worked for about two days before breaking, again i had a trailer attached and was going up a gravel road. (side note the lava/gravel roads in hawaii are similar to loose sand in the way one gets traction on them) i was able to pull on the **** really hard and got it go into 4 wheel drive till i got up the hill.

so now im stuck with another unit that doesn't work. im now up to around 800 bucks and no 4 wheel drive. i used 4 wheel drive almost all the time around the farm and trips to town are few. so im thinking of just gettting a permanent unit installed. kind of leary because the only one ive found comes from the company that make that cable unit. the other option is to geta hub conversion kit but that is like 2 grand and i could use the money elsewere. i have started researching just putting a solid shaft on the passenger side but havent seen anyone who sells them. not sure if i could use an earlier model dana 60 axle i would have to compare specs.

thanks for listening just frustrated with this dodge cad as a whole. i don't post much, but i use a lot of info from the other post when stuff breaks.

 

Why don't you just go back to the vacuum setup? It's generally a very reliable system.

 

ems makes a solid shaft.

 

Yeah, I can see how that would happen and you'd be fed up. I have one and can say I would not go back to vacuum. That's just the way I wheel and if it were more stock daily situations, the vacuum is the better way to go. There's a couple of things with these. You have to be moving to engage/disengage. You can't just pull it and go like the vacuum. Even then, the splines have to line up for it to move. You shouldn't pull with too much force. You'll stretch the cable or worse, break something. You need to engage it before you think you're going to need it. And, you have to get it adjusted right. I know what you mean by the **** turning. It takes some time to get it setup just right. Once it's set though, you're pretty good to go. You may want to go with the permanentpart and not deal with it at all. Then, it's just your t-case you're dealing with. That might make more sense for what it sounds like you do. Like I said, for me, this thing works out great. I wheel tight Jeep trails here in Colorado and it helps with getting around switchbacks so much easier. You didn't say what year you have but that hub conversion might cost more than the truck is worth (after you get it installed). Good luck man.