So, ive had some issues with the 4wd... for like 3 years now...
the first year i had it no 4wd... changed the vacuum switch, ran some new lines, did the seal in the transfer case... 4wd worked great... 2nd year 4wd was working then one of my body mounts broke (rusted and crunched) and the vacuum was partial and the gear did the grind til i didnt hear it no more... then there was no 4wd... i found the vacuum lines chopped and figured out thats why the vacuum to the diaphragm got messed up...
flash forward to this year...i did the gear replacement in the front axle, and when i hit the button on the dash i can hear the module click, but the encoder motor wasnt turning... i went to the junkyard and got an encoder motor and just in case, a backup tccm... there was snow coming and i wanted to get it buttoned up... i took my encoder motor off and hit the switch the see was it actually bad and it started spinning trying to find a selection point... its probably f'd up now but whatever... so thinking like whatever im cold, ill mess with it later, i zip tied it up and selected 4hi with a screwdriver... then i zip tied the diaphragm to trick the diff and transfer case to be in 4wd... the problem is, its not really engaged... the front driveshaft is locked like its engaged but the front diff is not engaged... its not tracking on turns, the front end isnt any tighter... i remember the 4wd in this mf kicked a$$ but i cant seem to get it right...
i unplugged the tccm and found the pins were corroded... so i just left it unplugged... is this why the 4wd wont activate fr? I have to go back to the junkyard and get the end of the harness and repair/swap it out so that everything is legit... im just confused as to why i cant manually engage... does it sound like something in my front diff is bad?