sj413 - no 4wd

[luke25]

After a few months of road use I went out for a play in the mud today only to find that I was only driving the back wheels.
The transfer case is still driving the front driveshaft so I'm pretty sure everything in the driveline is good up to the front diff. I pulled the freewheeling hubs apart and I'm pretty sure they are working ok. I presume that means that I either have a rooted front diff or one of the front axels is broken. Hopefully someone else has had this sort of thing happen and give me an idea of where to start looking. Haven't got a clue how to pull the axels and diff out - but then everything on the sj413 seems to be pretty easy to figure out. It isn't making any unusual noises and I've not been off road in a while so I don't really know when the problem started. Few months ago I understeered the front right wheel into a low bank pretty hard but it didn't appear to do any damage. Other then that I can't think of anything to have caused it.

[Rotazuk]

Up until the bit about hitting the bank I would have said one of the front hubs was not engaged . They were clean and had a bit of grease on them when you pulled them out ?

Engage the front hubs and put it in 2wd , ie not locking the t/case , and if you can turn the front drive shaft you have a problem , make sure both wheels are on the ground . It may be stiff so get a screwdriver or something . If you can turn it see if there is any noise or tight places , start on that side .
If you can't turn it the front diff is ok , and must be the t/case . Not selecting 4wd if shifter sheet worn , who knows .
From the handful of shafts I have seen broken , it always seens to be teh short side that goes , less give in swist I guess . But if you hit a bank thats probably a good side to start on also .

In short , jack up one side ( so oil does not come out ) remove lock hub again ,remove caliper ( do not undo break line , just hang it on a piece of string ) remove wheel bearings and hub . Remove 4 bolts and stub axle and backing plate . Pull out cv and shaft .

Good luck .

Chris

[luke25]

Yeah like you were talking about you can turn the front driveshaft while the wheels are on the ground. The front hub locks are functioning properly. when you lift the front wheels you can turn either one freely without it trying to drive the other one backward.

[Rotazuk]

If its all quiet then i would say a broken shaft

Chris

[luke25]

Pulled both axle shafts out today and they were ok - guess I'll be opening the diff up tomorrow

[Rotazuk]

On the Bright side , its easy now that the shafts are out . I would hae expected you to hear or feel a problem in the diff . Also metal on the drain plug when you drain the oil . Hope its not a hub problem .

Time for motivation story .
Pilot brings his car in to work , says the wheel is making a really bad noise and shuddering ( front wheel toyota corrola ) . I drive it , no problems . Few days later same thing , hes really freaked out this time . So I drive it again , all good . Jack it up check all cv's are quiet and working , all's sweet except the cv boot has split , advise him to get it replaced . Few days later he is up at his old man workshop and they are pulling the cv out , I am giving instructions over the phone . They get to the bit to pull out the cv joint from the hub. He pulls the shaft and out it comes with the inner cv joint piece . I say odd but ok you must have snapped the circlip just get the balls and check them , " what balls " , " the four balls in the cv joint " , " there are no balls in the cv joint " " Hmmmm , well you have found your problem "

Never seen it before but it must have been spitting out the balls in the cv joint each time it was shuddering down the road . I then believed him when he said it was bad

Does not help you apart from the laugh but goes to show , weird things can happen .

Cheers
Chris

[luke25]

Pulled the whole front end to bits and couldn't find anything wrong, so I put it all back together and its working again. So no idea what I did but glad to have it working. Everything needed a good grease up anyway so probably wasn't a bad thing after all.

[dean zuk]

Im currently having this same problem, although my hubs were really hard to put into the lock position (used a hammer and screwdriver to turn one of the hubs).

If the hubs weren't greased properly would this be the problem?
Its my daily driver so i don't want to pull anything apart that i can't get back together within the day.

Cheers
Dean

[lneil]

I would always be very careful about checking out the hubs thoroughly before stripping down diffs. If one of them isn't engaging it can be very difficult to corretcly identify and isolate the problem. In the past my front-drive issues have all turned out to be related to some form of locking hub failure.

If you need excessive force to engage the hub (hammer and screwdriver) I would suggest that it is definitely time to strip, clean and check your hubs!

[Heath]

I second the need for a strip down, clean and regrease.

[dean zuk]

Sweet well looks like i know what im doing this weekend, cheers for the replies

[DieselBoy]

If the drive shaft is being driven and you haven't done any crazy 4WDing and heard a crunching and banging, then its safe to say your free wheeling hubs are seized

Pull them off and have a look.

If they need parts, you can still drive around with them off if you REALLY have to

[dean zuk]

Pulled my hubs apart tonight, found the problem......

Cleaned and greased them, working fine now

[Heath]

Pulled my hubs apart tonight, found the problem......

Cleaned and greased them, working fine now

Ahh, Yeah. That'll be it!!