Push button 4wd on straight front axle?

[cst14]

I have done alot of research about doing the straigh axle swap and the one thing I can not find is how to actually engage the 4wd. Eveyone I have seen that did it, have floor shifter. Everyone mentions how much of a pain it will be and will negate the autotrac, but I dont have autotrac, just the push button for 2h,4h and 4L. Does anyone know if this is still possible before I start gathering all the parts?

[andyh1956]

it would seem to me that after the install then the only thing lacking would be the wires that used to go to the cad would be just hanging loose. can't see anything from here that would stop the transfer from shifting properly. i have a '94 4x4 dually out in the pasture just sitting & had thought about a straight axle conversion for it, but i will prolly do a 4 door square body 4x4 conversion instead. how tall will the conversion be? i have never seen one within about 4" of stock, they were always sky high.
andy

[cst14]

I am looking at about 8 inch total so I can run 38's. Im not looking to run 44's or anything. Not that 38's are really practical other than wheeling, that big is to big for me. I still want to be able to flex with minor trimming.

[ghettoluxury]

Here is my buddy tyler's 98 with the factory push button case and a Ford Dana 60.

[cst14]

Do you have any spec's for that? Lift height and tire size? Also do you know if he had to to anything as far as re-programming in his computer to make everything function properly? thank you

[ghettoluxury]

He used the ORU solid axle conversion kit with 38x12.5x20 tires. Nothing was done to the computer, the wires going to the front dif were crimped off.

[cst14]

That gives me hope again!! And Mater is the best cartoon character ever!

[DirtyLarry]

Man if it were me, I would take that electric shift transfercase and throw it in the aluminum recycle bin and find a NP241 or Borg-Warner manual shift transfercases that were used in the 1 tons. Why go through all the work to install a robust SFA and still have an unreliable soccer mom type method of shifting the transfercase. Over the past 13 years being at GM and late model GM vehicles with the electric shift crap made me a true hater of that system. I went out of my way when I purchased my Silverado 2500HD 4x4 new back in 2001 to find one with a manual shift transfercase. Same with my 2005 Silverado. Unfortunately, on my Tahoe Z71, electric shift is standard and guess what…..that is the one that has cause issues in my personal fleet. 2 control heads in it already and I suspect the TCCM is needing to be replaced soon.

[cst14]

I thought that all the electronic shift did was make the shift into 4wd push button and introduce the shift on the fly feature. I wasnt going to keep the stock t-case. I also didnt know that the 1 tons were all manual shift still. Never really looked into 3/4 and 1 tons because I dont need those to pull a boat. What makes the manual shift so much stronger than the electronic ones?

[jbclassix]

check this link here for inspiration... are you using the NP243?

[cst14]

That is a nice truck. Are you running 35's on it? I dont have the transfer case yet. still doing my research about the electronic 4wd.

[jbclassix]

Yeah, 35's. The NP243 is what I had in that truck. it was push button 4wd. On your question about shift-on-the-fly, my 73 scout with a dana 20, 70 suburban with a NP205, 91 Suburban, and 95 Yukon with NP241s are all shift on the fly. All of them have (or had) manual levers. If you leave the hubs locked in, have the same size tires all the way around with the SAME TIRE PRESSURE shifting into 4wd is no problem...

Some people hate the push button based on the performance of S10's! Yeah, those were JUNK for some reason. I have had my truck air borne, submerged, high centered, and anything else I could throw at it. I NEVER had a problem with the t-case buttons.

Now, if you don't have the PB t-case, it might be easier to find a 241, what ever you do, stay away from the 246 (auto 4wd) the front drive shaft will be expensive!

[cst14]

I dont really see the point in having auto 4wd. shift on the fly only because of some storms that I rarely encounter. Looks like I may go to manual shift so I can get a beefy transfer case to match the 1ton axles. seems pointless to upgrade everything else and then have 1/2 ton transfer case. If this is not the case, please correct me.

[jbclassix]

agree. auto 4wd is worthless. Any t-case can be shift on the fly. Good luck with your build!

[Zoomad75]

TCCM's, Shift encoder motors and the buttons themselves all have problems. At our shop we see encoder motors more than anything mainly because the trucks might get shifted into 4wd once in a year. The feedback switch on the encoder motor sticks and even though the motor actually shifts to the correct range if the TCCM can't see it from the feedback switch guess what it does? Yep it shifts back to the last selected range and forces the light on the button to blink at you. Later trucks will blink and throw a "Service 4wd Soon" message pop up on the DIC.

Besides that the pushbutton cases are pretty well known to have the oil pump on the rear output shaft loose a snap ring and have the pump start grinding into the top of the rear case half and pump all the oil out of the t-case. They typically come in with wiped out output bushings and floppy slip yoke plus oil everywhere.

If you are going to do the work to go with a solid axle, don't go halfway and leave the junk t-case in there. Do it right, do it once.

[jbclassix]

I guess I had the only non-junk t-case. You can have a random lemon or a random gem.