I have pulled one out of a 97 as I mentioned before, but I havent put it in to my Bravada yet. It is not too hard, but you do have to drop the transmission crossmember and lower the transmission and transfer case down a little bit to get at a bolt on the top of trans tailhousing. I dont think that your local guy knows the difference between electronic systems and mechanical linkages. There is no "partial" engagement of the switch. It is on or it is off. If the transfer case is partially engaging then the problem is either something hard inside the transfer case (problem would be constant all the time), or the actuator. If you have never changed the tcase fluid then drain it to check the state of the fluid. If there are not metal chips then replace the actuator.

-William

 

replaced fluid today, very black, nothing picked up on the magnet, still making noise, moving to actuator next. how hard is this to replace?

 

Not hard. You have to take off the front driveshaft by removing the U-joint strap bolts and using some kind of prying device behind the joint to free it from the yolk on the front diff. Once you get one side free the other side wiggles out pretty easilly. Just try not to pull the joint out of the little cup, otherwise you might loose a needle bearing. I rotate the shaft so that the axis of the cups that are in the front yolk is horizontal. This way the cups dont fall off as soon as it is free. They should have grease in them to hold them on there, but it only took dropping one once to not want it to happen again. Once this is free, remove the joint on the transfer case by simply prying it gently away from the case with a large screwdriver or prybar. There is a C-clip on the splined shaft that has to compress before the shaft will come off. It may take a little wiggling, but as soon as it is free, it will come right off. Now there are three or 4 bolts holding the actuator on. Remove those and the actuator will slide straight off the actuator shaft. Unless the seal is broken, no Tcase lube will leak out so dont worry about that. One thing that I learned the first time, make SURE you have the right socket to remove the actuator bolts before you take the whole thing apart. On my Tcase they are 12-point bolts not hex. Got me real good once I got the front driveshaft off

One more thing. The Haynes manual says the front Yolk bolts should be torqued to 50 lb-ft of torque. No no no! 25 is the absolute max for this size of bolt. I usually do 20, but that is probably still tighter than necessary. Also, make sure you put everything back together with anti-seize. I usually grease the splined shaft on the Tcase to make it go together easier also.

I really hope this solves your problem...
Good luck,
-William

 

well i ended up taking it to a local mechanic, evidentially the cable that engages and disengages the 4x4 up front was a little rusted and stuck, easy fix, he also had to replace a switch on the transfer case, $150 bucks later the noises are gone and the 4x4 works, he said the cable being rusted was keeping it in a "semi-engaged" mode causing the noises