I tried to shift into 4 wheel drive yesterday and heard a grinding noise from t cse. Last time I used 4 wheel drive was a year ago on icy road and it worked perfect then. any suggestions as to what to look for. it acts like its not fully engaging please advise

 

This a manual shift on the fly or an electronic engaged?

 

manual shifter on the floor

 

Check your linkage that would be my guess, not much goes wrong from what o gather on these manuals. Possible that mesh wasnt there. Try moving truck a few feet and engaging. Does 4wd light come on that would be a tell tale sign that maybe its not fully going into 4wd. That's assuming the switch is good as well. Have you tried a slow 3-5mph engagement?

 

I did not try a roll engage also did not notice if light came on or not I was in the mudhole already and when I heard the grind I shifted back to 2hi and hammered to get out of the hole. I figured the linkage or something maybe the issue. I just not certain of what else to look for other than that. I will check it out this evening and post my finds tonight. Thanks man

 

Also 4lo for me grinds unless I am in neutral. 4hi should just pop in without need to be in neutral.

 

yeah my 4 lo has to be in neutral to engage but the 4 hi has always just slid in with no issue at all until yesterday I think I just hav'nt used in such a long time something is not lubed right or simply stuck hopefully the linkage just has bad grommets or something simple like that we will see in about two hours when i get home from work

 

Well I found what the issue is apparently I have a bad tail shaft seal. I hve lost almost all the fluid in the t case and the shifter linkeage grommets need replacing as well. I filled the case and installed new grommets and it took a little work but I finally got the case to engage. now that I know its going to be okay tonight I will be installing a new tail shaft seal, and refilling the case with fluid. repairs will cost me about 100 dollars due to the amount of fluid I'm going to go through. Thanks

 

The grommets are cheap rubber and will dry rot and fail - been there, done that. I actually have now tethered my linkage to the frame so I can't lose it in the event of another grommet failure.

It's very important to cycle a 4WD truck into and out of 4WD often to lubricate parts, especially seals which can also dry rot and fail without getting fresh fluid sloshed around them periodically...