Tonight my friend went thought a creek and tried going up stream and somehow got stuck (hes got a 01 5.9 4x4 lifted 5"s and on 37"s), he thought he fixed his fourwheel drive but it wouldn't engage. Anyways.. I backed in and we hooked up a chain, tried putting it in four low when it was just grinded and popped when it went back into neutral. It goes in and out of four high fine but it didn've have enough ***** without jerking my friend to get him out. I put my truck into neutral before I tried going into four low. Last time I used four low as a few months ago during the winter and I didn't have any problems.


I need to change my front end fluid and I'm sure changing my transfer case fluid wouldn't be a bad idea either. Anything else I should do?

 

When you go into four low. DONT stop in neutral.(on transfer case). Just do from 2wheel to 4lo. Mine will grind if i stop it neutral as well. Plus ive been told, Have not had mine apart, but the shift fork in our style transfer case is alum. and they like to wear out. I was told to use a chevy shift fork that is steal and that also helps. Take that with a grain of salt thats just what ive been told dont know for a fact. Also if you were in water that deep. Make sure you check your tranny as well. They like to get water in them.

 

If your kinda of weary about throwing the shifter down into 4 low like that, you can always try to shut the truck off and then shift. I have found that its better to be stopped when going in to 4 low, but I just throw the shifter down real hard. Shifting from 2hi to 4hi, is best done moving at any speed up to 55mph.

 

I have found it helpful to be rolling (2-3 mph) in nuetral then shifting into 4 low, seems to go in much smoother this way (at least in my truck, I think they all have different attitudes about what they like).

 

Tranny in Reverse, roll back a couple feet, tranny in Neutral, t-case from 2wd to 4lw in one motion, tranny in Drive
They can get finicky in their old age.

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to try these out.

 

If its still popping out of gear the plastic pads on the shift forks are shot.

 

I bet the leaver wasn't pushed in enough. I've had mine pop out the same way simply because I didn't push it into 4lo far enough.

 

Speaking of that, you might want to crawl underneath it to see if the shifter needs to adjusted. its just a simple bolt that is holding the shifter together, and it might have slipped.