I just purchaced an 89 s10 4.3L 4wd. It runs great but I was initially having issues with the 4wd. From what ive been researching it was 2 separate problems.
1st. Problem, 4wd was intermitant. When pulling on she shift lever into 4hi or low sometimes the lights would activate and sometimes they wouldnt, and sometimes they would go on or off when driving, (used to haul wood out of forest) I checked all the vacuum hoses and found 2 that were cracked. Fixed hoses and 4-hi works great now. (so its not really a prob im having. just used as background to diagnosing my problems) 2nd. Problem. However when shifting into 4low I am having problem. I get it into 4-hi with no prob. stop and put the trans in neutral. Pull the 4x4 shift lever into neutral. Now here is where the problem comes in. Once in neutral on both the transmission and on the transfercase, I get stuck. Attempts to put back into 4-hi or down into 4-low lead to grinding where I can't/dont want to, move the shifter anymore. So I turn off the truck shift the transfercase back to 2wd and restart and all is good.I have gotten the 4-low to work once or twice with no prob, or occasionally it will go into low just not come out. The guy I bought the truck from explained similar problems, said he never had trouble getting it into low but occasionally couldnt get it out with out turning off. Im thinking maybe the shift linkage might need adjusting. It has a 2" body lift dont know if that would affect anything. Not sure how difficult adjusting the linkage is. Since I really only need 4-hi for mostly snow and some dirt trails, fixing the low if its a major issue isn't that important (just like to have everything workin on it)
Any ideas? Thanks