No 4WD

rickg121

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Hello Guys,
I know that there's a wealth of info for this subject on this forum, but after stumbling through it, I can't seem to distill the information that I need.

I've got a 2000 Jimmy 4 dr 4WD. Good truck and we've made a lot of history together.

I started hearing a whirring noise that sounded as if it came from the front right quadrant. It would start as I was driving 50 mph or so and would start slow and wind up like a turbine speeding up. If I depressed the 4WD button, it would stop. After going back to 2WD it may run OK for awhile, but usually eventually starts winding up again.

Last weekend, I put my boat in the lake. The Jimmy wouldn't pull it out. I can't tell you how embarrassing this was. I had to get pulled out by a Ford Ranger. After getting home, I noticed that the rear tires were muddy from spinning, but the front ones were not. After inspection I verified that the front end was not engaging.

The 4WD lights come on, & I can hear the xfer case engaging. I pulled the front differential clutch solenoid. It's operating just fine.

So now, I'm presumably looking at pulling the front differential. Unfortunately, I've never done this on this vehicle, and don't exactly know what to expect.

Can I inspect the clutch by pulling the clutch cable cover on the diff, or does the whole darned thing have to come out?

Anybody have any experience here? Any comments or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick G
 
I'd say that you first should check your hub assemblies...

Fairly easy and straight forward with full time hubs in place.

Secondly, what "Clutch" do you think needs to be inspected? The transfer case don't have one that I'm aware of.
 
It's my understanding that the solenoid actived clutch cable (located under the battery tray) operates the front hubs. When the solenoid is electrically energized, it applies vacuum to a diaphram which retracts the clutch cable that is attached to a clutch fork that engages the hubs. Am I mistaken?
 
You may be correct but that seems like a jinky way to engage a front end. I thought most GM's were full time front hubs and a simple push a button for the electric engagement in the transfer case...

Been many years since I played with GM products.
 
Wait!!!

check the vacuum line between the front hog head(differential) and transfer case. mine was loose and it caused this problem. i went to autozone and bought a vacuum line "T" pipe and ran the differential vacuum to itself and fixed the problem.

Hope it helps you,
1BADAZZJIMMY
 


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