replaced my 4wd actuator a couple weeks ago and everything was working ... then the front axle quit engaging. Pulled the battery tray and sure enough, the spring is not catching the cable. I messed with this thing for like 2 hours trying to tighten the spring, etc. but it's just not reliable. Is there a trick to this I'm missing? Seems like a really poor design.

What have others done? Cotter pin? Or would it spread out too much to be effective? I'm half tempted to shoot the thing full of JB Weld or another metal / metal epoxy buty that seems like a one way trip.

 

If you go to the "How-To" section, you can find the post for the posi-lock system, this does away with the actuator all together.

Here's the link actually

https://blazerforum.com/forum/showth...highlight=posi

 

Yeah I was trying to avoid that for two reasons:

1. I plan to sell the truck in the next year or so ... would like it to be as stock as possible.

2. I already paid for a new actuator.

Here's what I did. I took the actuator and went exploring at the local Ace hardware where they have just about every fastener under the sun. Picked up several things. What actually ended up working (for now anyway) was a very small hitch pin. Like the type you use to keep your hitch in place. They had one small enough for the slot. I spread it out so the flat side was in the slot and the other side outside the actuator housing, applying pressure. Seems to be holding real well. So we'll see. If this fails again I may go with the posi-lok though.