There's some good info there. I found that the day I got my xj and had some questions about my 4wd.....then I found this site.

 

The transfer case was designed to be shifted "on the fly" at any legal speed. It works better that way. It's not really necessary to depress the clutch in a manual trans equipped vehicle on the fly. You can do as you would an auto trans vehicle and let off the gas, shift, tap the gas and let off again and you should be good to go.

For 4 lo, you want to already have shifted into 4wd, come to a stop and engage 4 lo.

 

wait so i can shift into 4HI on my 231 while moving??? never heared of such a thing. i thought tstopped and trans in N was the only way. am i wrong??? (as i usually am)

 

Absolutely "shift on the fly". Do you know how many times I've explained this from 1984 when the first XJs came out til 1992 while Service Manager at the dealership?

 

Some manuals say up to 45-55 mph...

 

now even if you have a command trac vaccum activated axle? i might try that on the way home. look for my posts tomorrow that says "HELP, my Tcase exploded" haha

 

even though it says shift on the fly is fine without shifting into neutral, but here in the snow belt, any unexpected quirkiness by just pulling into 4wd at 80kph (45mph) without simply disengaging the powertrain momentarily may send you into the ditch. so i always throw the clutch in when pulling on that stuck lever, or just shifting into neutral for a sec in my auto.
i guess if you live in arizona, you'd be fine to just pull it into 4wd at 45.

 

It would also be horribly bad and possibly quite destructive if you pulled the 4wd lever while the front and rear wheels are spinning at different speeds.

 

I shift on the fly in my 87...

 

That can't be good

 

Shifting on the fly? Again, its fine for most XJs. While the fronts and rears spin at different speeds? No, that's bad.

 

you should see tge aftermath of this being done on the 7ton 6wd trucks we use in the marines....its ulgy...very ulgy

 

Well, I'll be a monkeys *@#* uncle!!!!!

You know, I've never tried it...... in gear, rollin down road and throw destructor lever, er, I mean 4H lever and then throw down off into a culvert, sand, snow, mud.....

Never knew. Even when I had her new.......

Guess I thinkin' I was in the old lockin hub days, when you gotta get outta truck and turn hubs.......

well, this weekend is test time!!!!!!!!!


cpnwrench

 

My automatic 99 doesn't seem to go into 4 HI "on the fly". I got in the habit of while still coasting, shift into neutral, pull into 4 HI, and put back in drive. Seems to work well, and it dummy-proofs you doing it while spinning.

 

It snows where I live in the mountains of Arizona. Good tip though, on shifting in the snow.