I have a 2002 S10 Blazer with an on going issue with the four wheel drive. The vacuum actuator under the battery keeps tearing. I've replaced it several times. Does anyone know of a recall on this item? Are there any alternatives out there for a more reliable 4x4 system. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Are you sure that you are getting bad actuators and not a problem with the cable to the front axle??

Maybe you are having a problem with the battery leaking acid and causing the tear..

 

If I'm not mistaken you can use a cable from the cab to lock the front diff instead of the vacuum set up..... its called a posi-lok cable.....I have seem them on ebay for a ton of different trucks. Search Blazer posi-lok cable and you will see it.

 

They do make them. Some people have trouble installing them due to the length involved from the cab to the front differential. All the bends in the cable causes it to be difficult to engage/disengage the front axle. They then decide it is not worth it and repair their problem and just go back to the original setup or they do the bravada swap..

 

the way older blazers put that thing on the fender. was easy to just manually pull them and put a pair of vise grips on it. thats such a horrible place to put it

 

On the 2nd generation they are under the battery tray. I have seen the battery leak acid and destroy the baffle on the actuator.

Some people have had good luck replacing the entire vacuum system with the Posi Lock cable, but also have seen people go back to the original vacuum system or even the Bravada axle swap because they had too many bends in the cable and it was too hard to engage and disengage.

the Bravada swap is good, it gets rid of alot of stuff but the downside is, is that the axle is always turning, even not in 4wd. Don't know how much it costs in the increased fuel costs of that.

 

Are you getting transmission oil in the vacuum lines transmission oil trashes rubber that was what happened to my 2003 caused by a bad input shaft seal