Assuming that you have an air shift case (required unless you have the REB
conversion) the front drive axle and and drive shaft are not turning with the
hubs unlocked. If they do turn its because of fluid viscosity in the
transfer case and will turn very slow. When you engage front drive, you are
trying to engage a gear spinning at road speed and a gear not moving or
moving very slowly. This would work in theory of these gears were
synchronized but the are not. Try this, drive your truck into third gear at
about 20 MPH and try to put it back in first. First is not synchronized and a
most unpleasant sound will occur. If your hubs were locked in, the front
drive line would already be travelling at road speed and gear engagement
would would be effortless. Another costly experiment would be to get the
truck stuck without the front drive engaged, then engaging it while you are
spinning the rear tires. You will either experience the unpleasant sound, a
large thunk coupled with a hefty tow and repair bill. In a nutshell,
engaging unsynchronized gears rotating at different speeds is a no no. With
your hubs unlocked the front driveline is not spinning or spinning very slow.
Kenneth Engle
Loxahatchee, FL U.S.A.
AM General M-35A2
Fruehauf M105A1
(and a cool shop phone)
http://hometown.aol.com/recovry4x4/myhomepage/photo.html
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