Putting it in 4-wheel drive?

you can shift from 2 hi to 4 hi while on the fly. moving into 4 low is an enormous gearing transition, and just barely moving is about as fast as you want to go. My truck requires that I am in neutral to move into 4 low, though not sure if the newer ones require that. The slight bit of movement makes it fall right into gear from my experience, where if I am completely at a dead stop, I have to push it in/grind it in a bit (not a perfectly smooth transition). That ever so slow crawl and it pops right in. I don't know what the gearing in 4 lo is, but it is very low, so watch your RPM's.

Big Chris

On your vehicle, the system will not allow you to shift into 4lo unless you are in neutral and either stopped, or going very slow.

2hi to 4hi uses a synchronizer just like the forward gears in a manual trans, so it will shift in at any speed. Even with that shift, it's best to be neither on or off the throttle while the shift is happening.

Different vehicle, different year...etc.

Ian

The NVG233 t-case has, I think, 2.72:1 gearing in low range. that's the unit in the S-10s, not sure about the full-size...

sorry you are stuck with a mazda. shifting at a slow speed allows the gears to mesh easier and does not hurt anything. if you were stopped(as in Mazda) often the gear trying to mesh will hit right on top of the tooth in the box and you will have to jerk it to move the gear so they will mesh. john buy american or you are part of the problem.

The Mazda is just a work truck or gravel road truck. Its a B2600i . I have had the truck 5 years now and has been a good truck, runs great, never any problems. Except when I first got it. The head cracked. You never want to replace the head on a Mazda. The cheapest head I could find was a rebuild one for $1800. No way I was going to pay that. I lucked up and found another mazda that was totaled out from the back-in. I bought the whole truck for $1500. Anyhow, after this one I will never own a foreign made vechicle.

Its still designed and made by an American company so the majority of it is American even if it had some assembly done in Canada or a component or two made in Mexico. People seem to forget that when they claim their Hondas or Toyotas are "American". The Assembly of a vehicle is only about 25% of the whole thing, there are so many designers, testers, project manager, managers, etc that make up most of an company.

I wonder what's the chance are that you Z71 was made in Canada? Or the engine in Mexico? Maybe both. "LOL"

Diamond Jim