Flat Towing A Blazer
 

I was wondering if anyone out there ever flat towed their Blazer or Jimmy, no trailer or tow dollies? Just using a tow bar like you see behind motor homes pulling a car behind it. Does it have to be a stick shift? I have a 98 4x4 Blazer with an auto tranny. Can you just turn the key on, put it in neutral and just unhook the battery? Or do you have to remove the drive shaft?

For short trips, and not very often, you might be fine with just leaving it in neutral.

For longer drives, however, with an automatic I would pull the driveshaft. Problem is, depending on how the output seals on your tcase are, it's probably going to leak all the aft out of the tcase. The rear driveshaft (both driveshafts, actually, stock) is a slip yoke. And from what I could tell when I rebuilt mine, it seemed like the rear driveshaft needed to be in to seal properly.

Maybe run by a junkyard and grab an old shaft, and cut it off where the u joint is, behind the slip yoke? Stab that into the tcase to keep it sealed, and be able to flat tow it as far as you want

I use to have a 2000 LT 4.3 4x4 Blazer and I NEVER tried But according to the Owners Manual there is a way to disconnect everything by pushing certain buttons on the 4 wheel drive buttons to make it flat tow-able. I now have a 2003 S-10 pick up 4x4 4.3 and that option is no longer available

Dennis Rick

I would be really interested in hearing more about this, if you can find that info. Be really nice to have that option available.

Most tcases have a neutral position, where you can safely flat tow it. The oil pump on the np233 is on the rear output, so it can be towed just fine, it's the transmission that will be damaged.

I second that! That would be sweet to just push buttons to flat tow it :) How can I find out that info on my 98 4x4 Blazer?

I want to find out that, also. This is the first I've heard of it.

I remember hearing one time, that if you pull the encoder motor, you can physically move it into a neutral position, but there is no detent to hold it there, so there's a chance of it getting bumped back into "gear." I didn't think to mess around with it and see when I had mine on the bench

If you have a 4-button transfer case, it can be set so that all wheels are free-wheeling.

That's really cool and useful that the 236 cases have neutral. Wonder if the 233s have something similar? I don't have the owners manual, but I guess Google is just as good, huh?

For the 233's (the 3-button transfer cases, I don't think so but you should double check that. I got those pages from a pdf of the 1999 owners manual so you should be able to find the one for your year.

I have the 3 button switch and haven't found anything useful really yet on Google... You would think there has to be a bypass since most of these trucks were auto over a 5 speed... If anyone finds a way to do it I would surely love to get that info!