vacuum activated axle disconnect?????

[offroadmission]

my 87 yj has one of these stupid things on thr front d30. what a piece of crap. it is not working. imagine that! there are 3 connections on the stupid thing. which one/ones should have vacuum applied to it/them when it should be locked for 4x4? i want to make sure that irt is getting vacuum before i go and replace it or buy a posi-lock. i am planningan axle swap in the near future and just need for the 4x4 to work to get me through our mild nc winters.

[currupt4130]

forget the motor, take the thing apart and rig the shift fork so it stays shifted to live axle. you wont ever have to worry about it again.

[offroadmission]

i thought about this, but don't really know much about this thing,

[jeepcrazie]

Take it apaprt (4 Bolts) and make sure the shift fork is not broken first. If not, do as said above, very easy and self explanatory.

[ky1tonyj]

Forget the two piece axle all together. Take the entire shift motor off, make a cover plate for the hole, get a solid long side shaft from a Cherokee at the junkyard, plug the vacuum lines, and take off.

[currupt4130]

if hes upgrading all that work is just a waste of money, plus he has to source the seal, they have the number on JU somehwere

[geberhard]

hey, what about using the search button before posting for a change? I just posted a long reply here yesterday with the answers and suggestions you need Wow, search button, how innovative

/forum/newbie-general-4x4-discussion/400800-yj-vaccume-hubs-dont-work.html

[Brandon H.]

Since mine broke off one of the nipples, I am going to try something to lock it in and not have to worry about the vacuum probs. I cut off the vacuum box thing with the 2 nipples on it and it looks like this now

Then I will take out the nut on the other side that has that sending unit with the 2 wires, and put a bolt through it to lock the collar in place.

Question I want to know is what way does the collar have to go untill its locked, towards the vacuum box I cut off or the sending unit? Also would there be any reason why I wouldn't want the front end locked all the time ( my dad want to know the question).

[geberhard]

You do not want the front locked all the time because it is a two piece axle, and if yoy keep driving on the road it will eventually fail (the axle). You can alteranatively rig and make your own cable disconect shifter like on the link I mentioned above. The Best approach in my opinion is to replace the inner two piece and outer one piece with a TJ or XJ one piece setup, which eliminated the vacuum and two axle crap alltogether. You can also try just running the colar and locking int by hand if you insist on keeping the axle pieces locked. One of the ideas behind the two piece inner dealt with minimizing wear and strain on the internal components.

Gui

[ksmith]

I installed one of those posi-lock cable setups last fall. It worked ok but was a little bit of a pita to set up perfect. Yes, the axle is a pos but it was my wifes dd. This winter it is mine so last weekend I welded up the spider gears in it just for fun, now one axle drives and when I want the front locked and both driving I just use the posi lock to connect the front axle. Should be great this winter, an axle upgrade is coming in the spring but this was a good learning experiment. A friend just slid his lock collar over manually for the winter and was very happy with it.

Just my .02
k

[Brandon H.]

So putting a bolt through the hole to keep the axle locked would be a bad idea? I saw one of my buddys did that to his, but I don't want to do it if its not good. Im going to be using the 2 peice axles for now, maybe later on I will get a 1 peice. Any ideas on how else I should make it where I can lock and unlock the frint end, but not using the vacuum actuator. I think I have an idea on how to make a homemade posi-lock but it would be too much to write and to hard to understand.