In 4 wheel drive my front wheels arn't pulling as much as they should

I pulled the vacuum acuator manually and then put the truck into 4wheel drive and going up a small hill the front wheels will barely move or not move at all? Any suggestions? they worked fine 2 days ago but i have no clue.

they cant pull any less than the rear wheels push. are you sure it is in 4wd. is the actuator working. remove it and see if it pulls over out of the car, make sure you dont have vacuum leaks. also i have lubud the splines on the front axle shaft and moved the actuating collar inside there to loosen it up. sometimes it sticks. i lubed it with lubriplate white lithium grease

the actuator is working i manually lock it so its in but my backwheels are spinning all over the place and my front wheels are barely moving...

it doesnt sound possible unless for some reason there are different ratio diffs. which it probably wouldnt move at all. or different size tires on front than rear, if that is so the drivetrain would bind when in 4wd

DoneDeal287 said:

the actuator is working i manually lock it so its in but my backwheels are spinning all over the place and my front wheels are barely moving...

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When you say you're manually locking it, what does this consist of? Have you checked to make really sure that the locking is effective? Do whatever you do to manually lock it, then jack up the right front wheel and try to turn it. If it's engaged it will turn (or try to turn) the front driveshaft. That means if you're in gear or in park and in 4WD, it shouldn't turn at all.

Do you have a 242 transfer case? Is it in PT-4WD or FT-4WD?

If you have a 231, or if the 242 is locked into PT-4WD then the front and rear driveshafts are locked together and there is no way that the front can turn any less than the rear. If you have a 242 in FT-4WD then I don't know, maybe something could be wrong in the transfer case that's not putting power to the front driveshaft.