I just picked up my first 4wd vehicle. 96 s-10 blazer. It has the manual shift on the foor. I got stuck in my yard the other day in snow so i put it in 4hi and there was no difference and only rear tires where spinning. I put it in 4lo and the same thing only power to rear tires it seems, but it DOES put in into the low gear. I also noticed when driving down the road the pattern down by the shifer keeps flashing in and out like the front tires are locking and unlocking by themselves, Prolly just a instrument panel problem there i'm guessing, but maybe more. I'm not really sure how to test the 4wd other then the other day when i was stuck, i was hammering that gas and only rear tires seem to be getting torque.

Like i said this is my first 4WD vehicle so i'm not sure where to start. I read over every 4x4 post on here over the past 2 days, the the majority of them focus on the push button 4WD so i'm not exactly sure how they differ aside from the obvious. Any help or ideas on where to start are appreciated. I took a pic with my crappy cell phone, you can see the shifer is in 2hi, but is shows the front hubs locked.

[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/2jeqxjt.jpg[/IMG]

 

There is no difference in the front axle engagement between the manual floor shift and the 3-button electronic shift transfer cases.

Check out the Tech Article (DIY) section: 4x4 No Worky.... Maybe this will help....

 

Thanks for the reply, I read over the post. It's like 17 degrees here and I don't have a garage, but i did fiddle around a bit. I removed the battery and played around with that actuator, what I did find was it don't matter what the 4WD is in the actuator is sucked in with the vacuum and the cable is pulled. 2HI, 4HI and 4LO all suck in the actuator, so the explained why the 4WD pattern light was staying on. But it seems to only still be driving the rear Wheels. I didn't get a chance to test the Tcase cause it was to cold to crawl around on the ground to spin the front shaft. I'm really hoping it's not the tcase.

Hypothetically if the tcase is good can it be problems with other vacuum lines down by the tcase? Just wondering what else would keep the front hubs from locking in since the actuator is pulling the cable no matter the gear it's in.

 

If the front axle is always engaged, you either have a problem with the vacuum line routing or a vacuum switch problem on the transfer case.

How far does the actuator pull the cable? It needs to pull it over 1/2" for the front axle to properly engage. With the transfer case in 2HI, you should be able to spin the front driveshaft. If you manually pull the cable at the actuator at least 1/2" and try to spin the front driveshaft again, it should not turn. If it does, then the front axle is not engaging for one reason or another. Your next step would be to pull off the cover on the passenger side of the front diff where the cable enters.