2003 KJ - fail of 4wd for a short time.

[JustSumDad]

So today I was driveing on wet pavement on the hwy and thus in 2wd, I turned off onto a packed down snow road and on the fly but at slow ish speed I selected PT4wd and proceeded.
As I started up an incline on the road, it started to spin, rear only... confused I slowed, had to anyhow... clicked back and forth from 2wd to 4wd and it was clearly stuck in 2wd only...
I also tried FT4wd and no luck, brakes on full stop, nothing only 2wd. I gave up, put it in park, tried 4 low and then had front dig.. Stopped, went back to 4hi (sorry FT4wd) and finally had it working...
The lights on the dash were showing what I expected, everything felt like it was getting selected correctly, I did not feel play in between the clicks...
I always thought the libby had a live axel... Was I exprienceing an auto hub locking issue?

Any ideas?

 

[JustSumDad]

After exploreing a bit, it seems the Libby does NOT have any form of hub disconnect...

So hopefully someone can tell me why I was not abel to get front dig until I went all the way to 4 low...

 

[KJowner]

Mine sometimes needs a nudge of reverse to get it to drop into 4x4, probably a bit sticky from lack of use.

 

[JustSumDad]

Mine sometimes needs a nudge of reverse to get it to drop into 4x4, probably a bit sticky from lack of use.

thats really weird to me, but I dont actually know how the tcase is setup... I thought the lever ran a cable direct to the tcase shifter arm and that arm was directly connected to the shift fork... so it if the lever moves it has to engage...
is it maybe spring loaded somewhere in between?

 

[24turbo]

When you pull the transfer case lever it doesn't necessarily fully lock into 4wd immediately. There are synchronizers that need to mesh together to fully engage 4wd. The synchronizer on one side is spring loaded and it is a slight difference in front vs back wheel speeds that allows the synchronizers to rotate enough to "lock into each other". If they meet directly against each other it may take a bit to get them rotated enough to get the meshing required to engage 4wd. This is to allow "on the fly" shifting into 4wd.

The indicator light is only an indication of the linkage position, not a confirmation it is actually fully functioning 4wd.

 

[JustSumDad]

When you pull the transfer case lever it doesn't necessarily fully lock into 4wd immediately. There are synchronizers that need to mesh together to fully engage 4wd. The synchronizer on one side is spring loaded and it is a slight difference in front vs back wheel speeds that allows the synchronizers to rotate enough to "lock into each other". If they meet directly against each other it may take a bit to get them rotated enough to get the meshing required to engage 4wd. This is to allow "on the fly" shifting into 4wd.

The indicator light is only an indication of the linkage position, not a confirmation it is actually fully functioning 4wd.

ok, this is makeing some sense, tho it was quite a bit of messing about to get it to lock in...
I was on an icy hill, brakes on no wheel spin, went from 2wd to 4pt and released the brake, rear spin only, brake on, wait a sec, slight gas-still 2wd only. Did the same in 4ft, did all this over and over while switching between nutral and drive. Finally I put it in park and went to 4low. This was when it finally got front grab...

My old Zuki did none of this messing about, if you felt the lever move you got what you were in, if the gears did not line up, the lever would not move.

 

[Actarus-Euphor]

Aren't there also disengageable hubs on the front wheels that could also have been late to engage?
(I had more or less the same situation once)