i own a 98 quad cab dodge ram, 4x4, and i used the 4x4 this weekend as we had some snow, it went in fine, and comes out of 4 wheel drive fine, but the light is staying on. i tried backing up, putting it back in and out of 4x4 and its still on, driving me crazy when its clearly out of 4x4, what to do????

 

electrical switch on the drivers side of the cad unit, which is on the back side of the axle, passenger side. unplug the connector and spray it full of wd40 several times, wipe or blow clean and plug it back in. light should be out while unplugged - check... if wd40 doesn't fx it test switch w/multimeter. might have to replace it.

 

man that sounds easy enough! thanks! i hope that does it. what is the "cad" unit? exactly? oh and its really really hard to get my truck to go into 4L, is it just sticky where it hasn't been used? ive only owned it a month and the guy ibought it from said he maybe used 4x4 once. nice.

 

see this for info and free download of 2001 service manual. https://dodgeforum.com/m_696274/tm.htm

more...
https://dodgeforum.com/m_693629/tm.htm

http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/...CAD_engagement

also, try a search on CAD for more.

 

man thats good stuff, i appreciate the help. one other thing, is there a secret to getting this thing in 4L? it go's into 4H hard but it go's in, but for the life of me i cant get it into 4L? is there a trick or a secret to this? I didn't get a owners manual so im not sure on the "exact" way to put into 4x4 either....thanks for the help guys.

 

you can shift on the fly between 2h and 4hi. dodge says up to 50mph but i don't recomend doing it at that kind of speed. i find that mine shifts best when coasting forward at a slow speed. mine does not shift well when sitting still, or when accelerating uphill or anytime there is a load on the gears. when you shift it, just yank it hard, don't baby it. you are shifting the transfer case, which engages the front drive shaft. be aware that unless you have a locker front differential, as opposed to the standard factory open differential, you still don't have 4wd until your 2 piece front passenger side axle couples together via the sleeve inside the cad. so if that fails for any reason, you are just spinning the spider gears around. when you shift to either 4hi or 4 lo, a vacuum switch in the transfer case sends vacuum to the cad to accomplish this.

shifting from 2hi to 4lo is a different story. you CANNOT shift on the fly. dodge says to do this with transmission in neutral, while rolling forward at a very very low speed (or in park). there are no syncros in this shift. so do like they say and then SLAM it as hard as you can THROUGH the tcase neutral position. do NOT pause in neutral or you will most likely have to stop, turn off truck, finish the shift, and restart the engine due to the horrible screeching grinding sound that will come out of your tcase. you know the kind that makes your skin crawl and your eyes squint up. mine shifts good if i do it exactly like this. it takes some practice. its kind of like driving a straight shift without using the clutch.

ok, now. you will get different opinions here. dodge says to only use 4wd on slippery surfaces due to drive line binding. this means that since there is no differential between the front and rear axles, they are sort of fighting each other a little and every once in a while the tires need to slip a little to relieve the pressure. in mud, dirt, snow this happens without much notice. on pavement you get a little tire chirp and/or its hard to turn the wheel. some people say BS just stand on it and it'll be alright. your truck, your call. btw this is why you must run the same size tires and gears on front as on rear.

 

man good advice. ill try the 2h thru neutral all the way to 4l and see what happens, yeah i got the grinding noise earlier tonight when going into 4l but i got it in there and it works great. so really i need to be in neurtral and coasting a wee bit then slam it into 4L? hmm...have to try that. i took my plug out and wd40'd the little fella so well see if that makes my light go off, if it doesn't can i just leave it unhooked? i need no light, anyone with common sense should tell when its in 4x4 or not...

 

this is it. hub lock indicator switch...$15.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...%7ENONE%7C%7EV

http://www.e-webcatalog.com/wells/ecatalog.aspx

shifting in/out of 4lo - trans in neutral. truck rolling forward very very slowly about 1mph. SLAM it from 4hi to 4lo. do not pause in neutral position of transfer case shifter.

when shifting out of 4wd (hi or lo). stop and backup a tad to remove the load and allow front axle to disconnect.

[IMG]local://upfiles/38819/9CEF233A6A854CEAB962E664AFE427C0.jpg[/IMG]

 

so the cleaning of the switch didn't help, it now flickers at me then comes on then go's off for a bit then comes back on, then flickers, over and over and over....

can i just leave it unplugged??? or does that send something stupid to computer?

 

you can leave it unplugged. the computer doesn't care.
http://www.4x4wire.com/dodge/tech/solid_axle_cad/
http://www.dodgeram.org/tech/repair/..._engagment.htm