hi im david and just got my truck for a hell of a trade on craigslist like 3 days ago.
i traded my 2005 dodge neon sxt w/125k miles for a 1999 dodge ram 1500 reg cab short bed 4x4 with only 100k miles!!!.
i really know nothing about the truck yet besides what i read under the hood. it has a corprate 9" in rear with dana m44 in front. 3.55 gears. ac, heat everything works.

the guy even gave me an envelope full of receipts, some of the most recent and legible one were for, water pump 12/09, gatorback belt 01/10,
trans filter and fluid 01/10, reupholster headliner and visors 01/10, rims and tire of a 04 ram 02/10, flomaster single in single out exhaust 02/10.

**anyways my questions would be why wouldnt my front axle engage?
when i shift into 4hi or 4lo you can feel the extra grunt
but the "4x4" light doesnt come on and the front tires dont spin.

i hope its not something major, i looked at the axle and it looks like theres
some kind of actuator right behind the axle. could that be the problem?
all the vacuum lines are there and in good shape.

if it is the actuator(i think that is what it is called) how much would one cost?
i hope it not alot cause i just trade my daily driver for this beast.

 

He probally traded you cause he was tired of feeding that beast gas. As far the 4wd not engaging when you say the front wheels spin I assume you were in mud. My truck doesn't want to spin all 4 in anything but mud. There's a actuator on the tcase that turns the light on and off. The actuator on the axle is called a cad unit(central axle disconnect) and it uses vaccum to slide a collar over to engage the axle. Sometimes the collar wears out but100k is kinda low for that collar to wear out but anythings possible. Im gonna say your problem is tcase related. Welcome to the forums and congrats on a hell of a trade

 

Welcome to the world of the Ram and also welcome to DF.

Now there is going to be somethings you're going to need to look at and most likely fix, We have a search feature at the top of the page, research

Plenum gasket

Wildvents

Deathflash

4x4 vacume issue

 

THis is what you replace the CAD unit with:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/POS-400/

 

hell yeah that posi lock sounds nice. and i will try to use this weird search feature to look up those few things. my mechanic had warned me about something with the plenium gasket and some kind of sensor behind the TB going out. as for the 4x4 shifted into 4hi and drove foward and the front driveshaft moves so it got to be that cad unit. thanx yall

 

it sounds like a vacuum line problem. check the lines going to the actuator and see if any are cracked.

and yes the best way to go is Posi-Lok

 

The sensor for the 4x4 light is not in the tcase, its in the CAD. If there is not enough vacuum to fully engage 4x4, the fork wont slide over enough to trip the switch for the light to come on. I would pull off the vacuum line connector off the CAD and see if you can feel any vacuum. If you dont, trace all the lines back to the tcase for holes. There is an actuator on top of the tcase also (about $25) that all the vacuum lines go into that could be faulty. Hope this helps

 

thanx iblair ill will trace all the lines down tomorrow.

i figured it didnt have anything to do with the t-case and a couple of friends told me it could be the hubs. but i dont think these dodges have front hubs. Or do they?

i visualy looked at them but never ran my fingers across the line.

do yall know how to remove that vacuum line connector at the CAD?

 

welcome to DF. hope you brought a deep wallet.

download and save this. http://www.rm-indy.com/wavefiles/2001ramsrvcmanual.zip
also go get a haynes manual.

this will enable you to fix your CAD.
http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/..._engagment.htm
after you get tired of re-fixing it, get a posilok.

see the DIY guide here on DF for lots of tech articles.
also over on pavement - http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech.php

 

Exactly. I hate to say this but I don't think you made as good of a trade as you think. These trucks have lots of design flaws so expect to do repairs often.