I just bought a 92' Landcruiser. It has full time 4WD. On the inside, it has a differential lock button, and of course, the High/low lever.
What I am wondering, is if it is full time 4WD, what exactly does the differential button do?


Now, the reason i am wanting to know is this.

The previous owner was trying to get better gas milage out of the truck, so he converted it to 2WD that could also go to 4WD. But he just ended up F@&%#ing it up.
It has aisan manual hubs up front. But the car only drives when the differential button is ON inside. If you turn off the differential, the whole truck goes to neutral. I am not sure what all he did when trying the conversion, so i thought it would be good ide to understand how the system works before I touch anything.
I have never had a full time 4WD truck and not sure what everything does. I would like to finish what he started and have a 2WD/4WD truck, because it would help with the milage, especialy on long trips.
Other than that, the truck drives perfect.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Kent

 

It should also "drive" when you lock the front hubs and unlock the center diff.

A normal transfer case connects the front and rear driveshafts - locks them together so they turn the same speed - when you shift it into 4wd. This isn't too practical for AWD, so they usually have a center differential to help keep things from binding. The LC has an electric locker in the center diff that *should* only work in low range to give you better offroad capabilities.

Probably what is happening is when he put manual hubs on the front, when they are unlocked the center diff can't drive anything at all because it has no resistance on the front shaft. (Same as with the ADD front axle - you only have to disconnect one side for the whole front end to be free.)

Get rid of the front hubs.

 

Yeah to what flamed said. The diff lock in normal stock operation locks the center diff so the truck will send power 50/50 to front/rear like a traditional part time 4wd truck with 4wd engaged, with out the center diff locked, there is slippage from front to rear (or rear to front) so that it has better road manners. In order to use your LC in 2wd leave the center diff locked and the front hubs unlocked. To use as if it were stock full time 4wd, just lock the front hubs and unlock the center diff. For off road keep front hubs locked and engage the center diff lock.
So I don't think he screwed up the conversion at all, it works exactly as it should. Check out the 80 series forum on ih8mud.com for a good 80 series resource.

 

Thanks for the info.
I will experiment tomarrow and check it's exact operations, with and without the hubs locked.

I will also look at that ih8mud.com site.

Thanks
Kent

 

So with the CD locked it's a 2 WD.With CD unlocked it's a 0 WD.haha

 

True, but I get great milage.