Unlock hubs in 94 Cherokee

Tooth counts for AMC 20 and Dana 30 are identical for all ratios except

Steve

L.W.(ßill) Hughes III wrote:

I don't have direct experience with the vacuum slider cause mine never worked since I've owned it, but since I tore it off and and hooked up a cable, I find that when the engine is either pulling or braking, even slightly, it's damn near impossible to push the cable to disengage the axle. I expect the vacuum unit would be similarly ineffective in such cases. I have to feather the gas so that the inner and outer axles are freely rotating together in order to slide it off.

I presume you don't resort to the brute force 3000 rpm vacuum method until after trying to feather the gas to release pressure on the splined collar.

Steve

Mike Roma>

I am talking about city and highway driving in my 88 Cherokee to just release the axle after the shifter has gone to 2 WD. Once the shift is made the driveshaft is no longer under engine power. Then the only thing stopping the axle shift is low vacuum and maybe a bit of torque to spin the carrier and driveshaft so I think the neutral on thrust likely helps still. A quick goose and let off the gas always worked until recently for us which also has the not under thrust point you are talking about. I now think I have a hose loose or cracked under there. I will check closer come spring, don't mind it on right now.

I am seriously thinking about a cable switch too but if mine is just a loose hose, well it has worked well for 305K km....

Mike

Steve wrote:

Ah yes, of course.

Don't know why, but I've always pushed or pulled the cable while still in 4x4. Maybe it comes from my first test run with the cable when I stupidly pulled to engage while driving in 2HI. Grrrrunch.

Steve

Mike Roma> >>

I can see that. They are in the opposite order when going to 2 WD from

Mike

Steve wrote:

Thanks for all your comments about backing up the '94 Cherokee to unlock the hubs. I have the standard Jeep hubs, so I guess that's something I don't need to worry about doing.

- Tom

Nope, my '93 had a non-disconnect axle. They started with the non-disconnect axle with the full time Tcases, and I'm guessing they decided to drop the vacuum disconnect so they wouldn't need two different axke systems for the same vehicle.

Nope, wasn't shopping for one then. But I bet it also had something to do with the Grand, that was intro'd in 1993 model year and used the same front axle system as the XJ...