87 K5 4wd problem
 

Had to park my K5 for three months while I worked on the starting issues and cooling issues. Got all of that solved and went to drive it yesterday and on one of the rear wheels the brake is locked up (got to pull the tire and figure that out this weekend) but as I was in some muddy grass and hadn't figured out the brake was locked up on the other side at the moment I assumed I was stuck since the driver side was spinning in the mud so I pulled the lever for 4wd and neither front wheel pulled. I re shifted it multiple times and had my son watch the front drive shaft and it was spinning but the wheels were not.

The indicator light lit up on the dash.

It still has the factory Auto Hubs on it.

Is it the hubs or is there another actuator or the like on the front axle?

If it's the hubs I will just put manuals on it and trash the auto's but I can't afford to throw the money at the hubs if that's not the issue.

You have to move a little bit to get the front auto hubs to engage. There is no actuator, it is purely mechanical.

Throw the auto hubs in the trash and throw on some Warn manual hubs.

x2 those things give me nightmares. ive seen similar situations where someone gets stuck then puts it in 4x4 and it doesnt work or just slams in which can cause damage.

the s10 front ends are the same way too, you have to move like a inch for them to click in. with the manual hubs if you think you may be getting into some mud, just lock them in but leave your transfercase in 2wd and you can just put it in 4wd when you get stuck and they will work

You guys are ****ting me, so as I sat there in the muddy grass trying to get it to move forward since I had a locked up tire on the other side rear (still do that's today's project to work on that) putting it in 4wd to try and pull myself out was not going to work either since I could not physically move forward enough to lock them in????

If thats correct then screw the Auto Hubs.

When you have auto hubs, the vehicle has to move forward a bit to get them to lock in. So since you couldn't move, the hubs most likely did not lock in. If the "4 wheel drive" indicator light comes on the dash, your 4wd system IS working. My money is on the junk auto hubs.

^^^^^^ Any news on the cause of the locked up rear wheel?

Bad day and the neighbors threw a fit and called the law on me cause i was making too much noise revving it up trying to get it to the flat area in front of my garage so i could safely jack it up instead of it sitting on a 15 degree down slope.

Got it to the flat area before the cop got there and told him it didn't matter if he was there or not I was going to finish getting it there so I could be safe.

At that point it was getting dark and I was pissed so not a good time to be working on something so waiting till tomorrow. It would go in reverse with a bit of effort like the brake was dragging on that side but in forward its locked up and drags the tire. I was able to back it up pretty easy up a hill for about 20 feet but was having trouble going 6 feet forward where its flat.

Damn yankee neighbors are over 100 yards away and throw a hissy at any noise they can hear, told the cop he was going to get a call if I even hear a peep from that direction from now on.

You can lay money on Monday when I leave for work I am going to lay a set of noisy black marks right in front of their house and wake them up with my other truck (98 S10 SS) hope they like getting up early LOL.

for some reason if your rear brakes are over adjusted they can cause them to lock up in forward gear but not in reverse, have seen it happen a few times, also if you have a busted shoe in there that wedges forward might cause it. only real way to find out is to take off the drums and if its still locked up gonna be something in the rear end, and hopefully not the trans.

Jacked it up and took tire off and drum was stuck, shook the parking brake cable and it came off then, adjusted them back down till they just barely drug on the hub and cleaned it all up and greased all the moving parts and all is good now. They was adjusted way too far out, probably from the parking brake being hung.