1987 Ramcharger front 4x4 dont work, what to do?

[penguin]

I have a 87 ramcharger, it had auto hubs and some kinde of air hoses that run to the front axle. And also some wires as well to the same spot. The front axle does not engage. I was told that this kinde of set up is crap to begin with. I would just like to know if anyone has had this same problem and what can I do to fix it. Any help would be great. Thanks

[jedrattle]

You have a CAD axle in your truck. Yes they are crap! There is a sliding collar in the axle tube to connect the axle shaft to the diff. I am not sure but I think it uses vacuum from the engine to work. Check your vaccum hoses to make sure they aren't cracked or cut and connected. Most people replace the axle housing if they plan on really using the truck. Not much help I know but I will look in my book later.

[penguin]

ok, I will take a look, thanks

[dogbender]

your vaccum source is the engine but it routes through a switch on the transfercase

[CLRracer]

while the regular 44 is better, the CAD 44 isnt exactly crap. it was made for convinence to the user, and usually works well. after 350k miles of hard use, mine still works fine. if your going to really wheel the truck, then a 60 swap will most likely be in your future, so i would just permanently lock the CAD until then. you can permanently lock the CAD by removing the e clip holding it open, sliding the shift fork over, and putting the e clip back.

Duane

[bill2e]

I have an 87 RC also, and had a problem like this. In my case it wasn't
the vacuum at all, it was the axle housing. With that center disconnect,
the long side of the housing is 2 pieces pressed into the larger tube that
contains the disconnect collar. With hard wheeling and big tires, too much
stress here and the outer part of the axle tube gets deflected a little
so it's no longer perfectly straight and the axle shaft binds against it.
The axle shaft itself could not turn, it was wedged by the housing.

FYI it isn't auto hubs, the hubs are locked full-time with a slug in there
that always engages it. So the tires rolling makes the outer shaft turn
all the time, but it is disconected so one side of the diff is open.
I replaced these slugs with manual hub locks, and if I locked the hub without
even having the T-case in 4wd it would tear the hub apart instantly since
the shaft could not turn. In your case, if this is going on, it may have
stripped the hub itself, which would be bad news because those can be hard
to find and expensive. Junkyard would be your best bet.

So if it isn't the vacuum you may need to pull the wheel and check for this.
If you pull the wheel and remove the grease cap so you can see the end
of the shaft. Turn the rotor and the axle shaft should also turn smoothly
with it, since it should still be locked to the hub. And you should not be able
to turn the shaft itself without the rotor turning. If the rotor turns but the
shaft doesn't, or if the shaft won't turn at all even if the rotor is turning,
you may have this problem and need to replace the entire axle. I found
a 44 from an 84 RC, same dimensions, easy swap.

[hy_desert_4wheeler]

You didn't say whether your 4X4 light was coming on or not but if it is coming on then you can rule out the CAD..If the light is notcoming on and the bulb is good then your CAD could be bad or your vacuum switch on the T-case could be bad.. another possibility is that the vacuum source has been disconnected..an easy way to check the cad is to get some extra vacuum hose and run from a source to the CAD and see if the light comes on.. there are two lines to the cad, one to engage and one to disengage so try both..
Another thing that has happened to me is a broken short side shaft.. In mine it broke right next to the differential and the cover had to be removed to find the broken shaft....

[mondtster]

If you plan on keeping the truck for a while, why don't you just replace the 2 piece long side axle with a one piece one out of a non CAD axle? This would eliminate all questions of whether the CAD is working or not.

At that point you could put lockouts on the thing and then it would be like a normal old school 4x4.

Dodge put the CAD on the newer trucks as an additional creature comfort so the average guy wouldn't have to get out and lock the hubs when they needed to drive through some snow or a little mud or something. They werent built as hardcore wheelers, or else they would have been built differently.