Tranny question

[kingwill]

Ok this happends on both brats, I can shift easily into 4wd but, to take it out of gear is REALLY hard!!! Is this a common for Brat's or is it just me?

 

Brad

[NorthWet]

What type of surface are you on? And, are you moving or standing still? Since there is no center differential on your Brat, the front and rear differentials are locked together and unless one of the wheels can slip the driveline will start to wind up, putting load on the transfer gearset and making it hard for it to disengage.

[kingwill]

On dirt or the street sometimes the snow, depending on the season. sometimes I'm moving but mainliy I'm stopped.

[Seahag1978]

I have also found that it's more difficult to disengage than to engage the 4WD. You should never engage it while cornering so I assume your wheels should be straight when you disengage it.

 

You may try backing up a few feet with your wheels straight and then disengage it.

[mcbrat]

all true. the gen1 brats (and possibly the 4wd wagons too) had just slightly different front/rear ratios(3.900/3.899 and this was by design), which would load up faster if on hard surface/non-slip surface. engaging will always be easier, because the front and rear as spinning independently,until engaging,and it locks them, then the load up on the driveline occurs if there's no slippage.....

 

and keeping the tires rotated and with the same size and pressure all around will lessen the effect....

[Seahag1978]

The tire part is very important. I saw one that just stopped moving... he was running on dry pavement in 4WD. He turned a corner and she locked right up, come to find out, his tires weren't matched.

[Subafreak]

Yeah, back when I was a newbie, I was taking one of my first trips in my first car (85 BRAT) and was braging about how I could shift on the fly into 4WD. So my freind wanted to see it so I pulled the lever up in the middle of the city (bad idea) and it started to bind and stop moving. I pulled into a parking lot and damn near had to jump on the lever to get it back into 2WD.

 

 

Thinking back......I know it had different style tires front to rear.:-\

[kingwill]

Really the tires would do that? ( I've always put tires on that were not flat, but matching tread,,,not ever)

 

What about when stopped? should the car be rolling in a straight line?

[Seahag1978]

Really the tires would do that? ( I've always put tires on that were not flat, but matching tread,,,not ever)

 

What about when stopped? should the car be rolling in a straight line?

 

 

No, you can disengage it while stopped, but if your tires are not matched you may need to do the backing up thing to relieve the pressure.

 

Matched for size is much more important than tread... I try to keep tread matched too, just to avoid any fussiness.

 

In my city, the side streets may have several inches of snow/ice and the main roads down to bare pavement, so I'd be in and out of 4WD... a matched set of tires helps keep the switching to a minimum with less chance of binding.

 

Now stopping in snow with the ABS brakes on my Baja I could happily do without.

[kingwill]

Ok thanks for all the help, I will try this out next time I drive the brat's

 

Thanks