Thanks for the tip. Will spray them and hope I don't get in any more trouble.

I believe that's what's happened and jammed the shift collar. Once I get inside is this an easy task to unjam the shift collar or reallign it?

 

At worst, you'd have to loosen or remove the three spindle bolts so you can pull the axle out a couple of inches.

 

Yeah once you open it up its pretty straight forward. There's a fork connected to the cad that just slides the collar over your axels and that's it. Good luck!

 

Okay so I pulled off the cover. Got all 4 bolts out luckily. Let them sit with PB Blaster for a while and sprayed them twice. I see the fork which slides over the top and bottom of the axle which slides along the axle. I put the fork through these grooves and reattached and still would not switch from 4 wheel. I wonder with me driving around I may have damaged something. How do I bench test this unit for vacuum? Maybe its not working. I do hear vacuum when I pull off the lines though.

 

with truck parked safely so it doesn't run over you. get a helper at the tcase shifter. you at the cad. crank truck to establish vac. cad in hand and not installed, look at the fork. have helper shift to 4wd - see fork move toward passenger side. have helper shift to 2wd - see fok move back to drivers side.

with engine off, use your fingers as the fork, and slide the collar back and forth to the engaged and disengaged position. rock passenger front tire a smidgen to align the splines. DONT pinch your fingers.

 

So took the assembly off and everything seemed fine. Re installed and noticed it is shifting between 4w and 2w. The only thing is now is the light on the dash does not come on at all. Took it off one more time and upon closer inspection the fork looks bent.

So I'm hoping its going to be an easy job to replace the fork by taking those 3 c-clips off.
Dhvaughan, the axles are still lined up. The shift colar will slide from left to right manually. I'm glad that didn't happen though.

 

the fork is supposed to have an offset in it. about 2 inches or so.

the light is controlled by a contact switch in the drivers end of the cad. test the light by removing the electrical connector and shorting the 2 pins together. that should turn on the light in the dash. the switch is just a contact switch that is depressed by the fork.

so what's wrong?

 

Yes no I see the offset on the fork but its not that. The fork doesn't go straight onto the shift collar, it goes at an angle. Anyways after switching out the fork I noticed the vacuum rod was bent quite severely. Enough to grab and not beable to fully open and close.

After a busy schedule I was able to get to the junkyard and find another unit. The fork moves freely on this one and I can hear vacuum. Will throw in tomorrow and hopefully no problems after that.

 

Well 4X4 is working all back to normal. Next issue. Front drivers side axle seal. Was leaking before and now after changing wheel bearings seems to be leaking even worse. Can't even keep up with topping up the diff. I've read lots on this. Doesn't seem very too hard. Do I have to touch the passenger side hub assembly and remove axle to just replace the drivers side seal? Don't want to touch it as the pasenger side has never leaked since I've owned the truck.

 

The seal design on these axles was just stupid. To replace the drivers side seal, you have to almost completely disassemble the axle, just to see it.... Might just as well do both sides while you are in there, as you will more than likely end up doing the passenger side later in any event.