jones04

89 cherokee 4door I6, i put it into 4wd and i dont know how to ops check the 4wd. i live in alaska so its snow/ice and sometimes one tire spins and the rest dont it seems like. does the front drive shaft spin in 2 wheel drive. sometimes when i put my shifter into 4wd it seems like my transfer case goes into neutral so i then have to mess with the shifter to see if i can find 4 wheel drive y is that? can anybody help me please its drivin me crazy. thanks is advance

Bustedknuckle

Put a jackstand under all four corners and lift the Jeep so the tires clear the ground?

ZINGGG

^^ that, or find an icy parking lot or some area with lose gravel, throw it in 4wd and gun it. Stick your head out the window and have a look at your front tire

DFlintstone

You have a vacuum controlled deal that connects your RF axle into one piece. After the fork has engaged the spline there, a light should come on the dash. What lights do you get, and are the vacuum lines connected to the Vac disco down there on the axle? It's on the back side if the right front axle. A shop once knocked the lines off it installing a starter, so right there.

jones04

thanks. i lifted the front left to see if the tire would spin if it was in 4 and it wouldnt but in 2 it would so i guess it is in. does the front axel spin in 2 as well as 4. does anyone have a brake down on how the 4wd works like a schematic? As far as a light none of my dash lights work IDK but thats a different story. thanks again

dogger15

do you have a 242 or 231 tcase?

DFlintstone

A short answer is Yes, the front axle always turns. It's just freewheeling when the T-Case is In 2WD or neutral.

Longer answer. If that Vac. disconnect on the right axle is disengaged , of course the right can spin independent of anything. Now, because the differential splits/balances the energy, the left is also effectively free as the stub, (inner axle) on the right can now spin.

Likewise, if the front drive-shaft is engaged for 4WD, you will still be in 2WD as that same right inner axle can just spin.

So when you select 4WD two things happen, (first). You just manually shifted gears in the TC to drive the front axle, AND triggered a vacuum switch to apply vacuum to that deal in the axle, the Vacuum disconnect. (or "Disco"). That has a deal so when the fork has actually moved over, engaging the splines, it opens a port letting vacuum back out to a switch that light's a light on the dash that says, "hooray!, you actually made it!"

They canned that disco a few years later, (96?). It's not necessary. There is I great little wright-up here somewhere where you can simply pull a clip, slide to fork over to engage, stick the clip back on the other side, then stick a fork in it, it's done. You will never loose 4WD because of that thing again.

BTW, one time my fork broke off. The base would still move over and light the light though.

stev-o

u should have the dash lights coming on wen its in 4wd