my buddys 96 ram will click when you take off and do it till about 35 then usually pop and be fine until we stop again. my first thought was that stupid shift mechanism for the 4x4 so we deleted it by shifting it in 4wd and capping the lines and it stopped for about a week. now its doing it again. any suggestions? had a similar problem in my little yj and thats how i fixed it and hasnt done it since

 

clicking is often a bad u-joint. it could be u-joints in the front axle or your front drive shaft.

if i understand right on the front axle connect/disconnect, you engaged the 4wd, allowed the CAD to connect the axle by sliding the shift fork over, then you removed the vac lines and plugged the lines from the t-case, and capped the vac ports on the cad to keep dirt out. right ? so at least for awhile, your front axle is solidly engaged, and you can shift the t-case between 2wd/4wd. without vacuum pressure to hold your shift fork in the engaged position, i'm not sure it will stay engaged. its free to wander around and connect/disconnect at random. it might stay locked up, or it might not. i don't know. if it doesn't stay locked up, you could connect a full time engine vac line to one side of the cad only, so that it will stay locked up. don't connect only one side of the original t-case line because its on a switch.

 

my first thought was u-joints then when we locked the diff it stoped. and by capping the vaccume lines it seals the diaphram preventing it from moving so it should stay engaged.

 

is your 4wd light illuminated ?

assuming it works right, its a confirmation that the shift shaft/fork is slid all the way over, and the axles are locked.

 

the light illuminates when it wants to. its never worked right since he got the truck.

 

you can fix that light. remove the elec plug and clean out all the mud, spray it out with wd40 or elec cleaner. if that doesn't fix it, replace the switch for about $15-20. its on the drivers side of the cad.