Here is a tough one re 4 wheel drive

[brica]

My 2002 Jimmy runs great in 2 wheel drive. If I put it 4 wheel drive it runs fine IF I AM GOING STRAIGHT. If I turn my wheel something seems to lock...It becomes hard to drive, and then finnaly it made a cracking noise that i was certain my front end fell out. I checked everything, and cannot find a problem. I put it back into 2 wheel and it runs great. I still can go into 4 wheel going dtraight, but cannot turn.....Is this not the strangest thing ever?
For sure it is the front end, and I am thinking front left.

No shimmy, all else is well.

Appreciate any assistance in this matter

 

[darenofears]

does it only seem to do this on dry pavement?
with part time four wheel drives the will bind on dry pavement due to the fact that there is no give in the drivetrain

 

[brica]

Geeezzz..That was way to quick. I feel stupid saying this, but I dont know. Never wanted to test it again, and find I nneded a tow. We are expecting some more snow here so I will have to see what happens. I thank you so much for the help. The problem did happen on dry pavement, so you have me wondering. Thanks again for your help

 

[bigbluesuburban]

I am going to assume that you are completely new to owning a 4wheel drive... If I am wrong, then I don't know what to say.

When you are in 2wd (rear wheel drive) the engine transmits power through the transmission and straight through the transfer case. When you make a turn the inside and outside rear wheels travel at different speed but the open (stock) differential allows the wheels to do this without binding.

When to switch to 4wd the tranfer case begins transmitting 50% of the power to the front wheels through the front differential. This differential is also open and allows that left and right wheel to travel at different speed through a turn.

Where the binding occurs is at the transfer case. If you were to paint lines on the ground where the 4 wheels of your vehicle travel during a turn you would see that they all travel different distances to make it around a corner. For the most part the front wheels travel farther than the rear wheels and the outside wheels travel farther than the inside wheels. The difference in distance at each axle is made up for in the open differential. But the tranfer case does not have a differential mechanism in it. So it is going to turn the front and rear drivelines at the same speed, and since one of the front and one of the rear wheels are going to have power going to them and they are not traveling the same distance/speed in a turn this causes binding. And a some point something has to slip. This will usually be on of your tires will lose traction for a second and relieve the binding in the drivetrain. When this happens you will hear popping and creeking as the driveline components become relaxed again after being under pressure.

The solution... 4wd is for slippery, low traction situations. So don't go in 4wd until you need it. There are exceptions to this little lesson, a thing called AWD (All Wheel Drive) but that is on other models of Chevy and Jeep and some other manufacturers.

Please continue to read and learn about your truck so you can be an informed and competent 4wd owner.

 

[Leper]

If the front and rear gearing is different, it can contribute to the problem.

 

[southernspeed]

Yep, as BigBlue says. Transmission windup...not good. Just use your 4 wheel drive when you need to on low traction surfaces.

 

[Chaddy]

If the front and rear gearing is different, it can contribute to the problem.

He said it drives fine going straight. If he had different gears, he wouldnt be able to drive 2 feet without horrible problems....

 

[Leper]

probably 6 feet, but you are right.

 

[Russell]

Yep, when you guys get some real snow there, and things are slippery, try the 4x4 again, and see if it still does it. Worst case scenario, something is wrong, and you break something up front, but that doesn't mean you need a tow, just drop it back to 2wd, and drive it to a shop somewhere...

 

[diesel4me]

Make sure....

In addition to all stated here already,I'd make sure all 4 tires are the same size and tread pattern.."mixing" different brands can cause things like this to happen..just because all the tires say "235/75/15" means nothing, if they are not the same brands or tread pattern..we used giant "calipers" to measure the outside diameter of tires at my friends tire shop..

We were suprised to find even many "matching" tires of the same brand and type varied a good inch in diameter!..doesn't take much more than that to cause noticeable binding in 4wd,especially on dry tar,which is never a good place to use "part time"4wd!..

 

[bigbluesuburban]

In addition to all stated here already,I'd make sure all 4 tires are the same size and tread pattern.."mixing" different brands can cause things like this to happen..just because all the tires say "235/75/15" means nothing, if they are not the same brands or tread pattern..we used giant "calipers" to measure the outside diameter of tires at my friends tire shop..

We were suprised to find even many "matching" tires of the same brand and type varied a good inch in diameter!..doesn't take much more than that to cause noticeable binding in 4wd,especially on dry tar,which is never a good place to use "part time"4wd!..

He said it drives fine going straight. If he had different gears, he wouldnt be able to drive 2 feet without horrible problems....

Maybe 20 feet with this scenario... but still, it wouldn't work well if this were the case.

 

[brica]

This would be from Stupid in Toronto.....And yes it is my first 4 wheel drive. How you guys held back on all the stuff you could have said is beyond me. Self control on all your parts. I am both laughing, and feeling embarrased at the same time.

It has been snowing all day here, and after work I tried it out...Works damn well....No binding, and I love it.

I will take any comments you have to throw my way, and I deserve them all.

Thanks so much to all of you. I thought I had a big repair bill coming up. This site rules.