4wd Not Working.....possible axle problem???

I did a little poking around to figure out why my 4wd doesn't work. While I had the Vacum Disco Motor off of the Dana 30 I pushed the collar back and forth that engages 4wd and found out that it doesn't slip over the other axle shaft very easily. I started pushing on my axle shafts to see if they were lined up and thats when I found out that BOTH of my axle shafts have about 1/2 inch of play both directions (up and down). Are they supposed to have this much play.......doesn't seem likely.

That sounds about normal. There is a seal on either side of the vac disco. that is all that suports the shafts at that point. Usually the outer shaft is turning with the tire/wheel. When you engage 4wd the splines of both must match up for the collar to slide and "lock" the shafts together. It helps to slow down to a crawl. Check the vacumm lines from the t-case (4 lines). There are also three metal lines that drop from the passenger side of the engine bay against the fire wall to the frame rail. These metals lines can clog with rust from condensation. You may be able to clear them with a stif wire. You can test the shift motor on the axle with it out by applying vacuum to the port.

a few thoughts:

It's not likely the axle shafts taht are the problem, but weak vacuum at the CAD motor, or a bad Cad motor.

The cheap fix is to remove the cad motor, shim the fork over with some washers, reinstall the cad motor cover.
You now have what amounts to a solid axle.

Listen to 87manche, and I would put in some new seals while your in there.

I knew I shoulda got rid of the vacum disco a long time ago, I've pieced together a couple of the cable systems and never bothered to hook them up, just procrastinated too long........of course now you let me in on this little secret and it sounds easier than fabbing the cable. thanks.

I put in the washers to shim the fork over, took about 6 washers. When I put it on, I checked to make sure the fork would be in the correct position to hold the sliding collar in place and everything looked good. However when I shift into 4wd, I get a noise coming from my front axle and when I put it back into 2wd, the light stays on and the noise continues. After slowing down, stopping, putting in reverse, nutrual, and everything else , the light will eventually turn off and the noise stop. Any ideas? I'm about to go back out and open it back up to see what I can find. How many washers have yall used to shim it?