Jim - How does your rear diff engage? Is it controlled electronically or does it engage mechanically? I don't have a rear locker on my pickup, but have a mechanical one on my 89 Suburban.
It is just the stock mechanical one from GM, but a lot of times you can get it to engage by feathering the throttle. Makes a big difference when it is engaged and when it isn't. If I were off road a lot I would spring for one of the air lockers, but for my needs the stocker works pretty well. At least a lot better than my limited slip I had in my first truck. Every since then I've gotten the factory locker. Not sure where the Limited comes into play in limited slip, but from that experience it should've been called Let It Slip because that is what it did.
Al_Wa - So will that reset the system or something? I have used that method to get my DirecTV working again, just unplugged it for about a minute, then plugged it back in and it was fine. Have you actually had this same problem and solved the problem this way, or are you just suggesting it as something to try before spending the money on a new switch? Thanks.
Jim - Did that switch come with any instructions? Just curious if it says to disconnect the battery first. If so, based on Al_Wa's post you won't know if it was the switch or disconnecting the battery that solved the problem.
Danny, The "disconnect the negative terminal trick" was a hip shot because its easy to do (if you can figure out how to reset the clock on the radio) I had a similar problem on a Ford Explorer and got zero, zip help from the ford garage. Although the rig worked just fine, they recommended replacing some drive line speed sensors $$$$. While I was waiting for an appointment (2 weeks) I stumbled across a ford discussion thread about a mile long on "those $%#@ blinking lights" per their direction I disconnected the battery cable and "bingo" problem disappeared, and has not returned for about two years. (the clock is still blinking)
Hey Danny guess what?
I finally got around to put my switch in. Don't know yet if it stopped the Service 4WD light from coming on or not, but at least my 4wd lights operate properly now. Don't think disconnecting the battery will do any good as I've replaced my battery (it died) and it didn't anything to the light. I took a few pictures for you. Propably took me a total of 10 minutes and that included "play time" in the driveway to make sure it was working. This first picture is the new switch laying on the seat ready to be put in.
This a picture of the old switch with the trim panel removed. As we said before, just grabbed it and pulled. Turned the ignition on and dropped the gearshift selector to first, turned the 4-way flashers on (to lower the switch), and tilted the will as low as it would go so that I could get it out.
This is the switch once I got it out of its little space. It still has the wires connected to it. I was able to just use my fingers to pry the little tabs out that held the switch in place as well as the tabs that held the wires in.
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