So I drove my roommate's '96 Taco 3rz 5spd with manual locking hubs quite a lot today. Being close to spring and sunny, the roads had some dry pavement on them, so I wanted to take it out of 4wd. Well I could't when I wanted to, ie, once I got out of the intersections. I pushed the shifter into the 2wd position, but it didn't change out- the light didn't go out and I could still feel the front axles getting power. I tried once at the next stop light and it changed, but I wanted 4x4 so I wouldn't spin the wheels on the extremely icy intersections. So do Tacomas, even with manual hubs, not have shift on the fly? Or was I doing something wrong, like you have to press in the clutch, or keep the shifter in the 2wd position for longer than a few seconds? I didn't keep it in the 2wd position for very long because I was worried about messing something up.

 

Yeah you have shift on the fly, just to have the hubs locked.

With the hubs locked you can go from 2hi-4hi below like 65 miles per hour or something like that. I can do that in mine all day long. Should be almost instant swap to 2wd, I have had a little lag with add, but never with manual hubs. That doesn't sound right to me whats happening to you.

 

it all depends

if not all the tires are the same, or if one have less air pressure than the next it can make shifting between 2 and 4wd difficult

but if you have a manual case and hubs then with the hubs locked you can shift back and forth at pretty much any speed. on my 86 if i was sitting at a light it might fight me coming out of 4wd, but if i was going strait down a road and pushed the clutch in then it would shift no problem

 

What Crolision said.

While in the desert this past weekend I was in 2H and 4 H most, switching out of 4 around 20mph when I knew I didnt need it...
The light went off shortly after, Theres some times when it just does that, chalk it up to driveline binding..

 

Yeah, thanks guys, I figured it had shift on the fly. Its not my rig, so I'm not too concerned. It was just annoying then. I'm sure the driveline is bound up like no tomorrow because he drives it in 4wd all winter...like even when the roads are dry enough to use only 2wd...But, with my older rigs, hen the driveline was bound up, the shifter itself was hard to move. In the Taco, its easy right now...i just can't feel it disengage like with my older rigs, or even when I have the Taco stopped and I disengage.
oh..and of course the hubs are locked

 

shift on the fly has been around forever

see your first 4x4 trucks had live axles all the way around, and there was no disconnection to the front wheels, so even in 2wd the whole front driveline is spinning, just not getting power, all you had to do is drive strait and put it in neutral or push in the clutch and shift the tcase into 4wd (high not low)

then manual hubs came along and they were the best thing that ever happened imo. I wish everything 4wd came standard with a manual tcase and manual hubs

 

wtf...uh no? both my rigs were IFS with manual hubs. If I had ADD or Auto-Hubs, I would have switched out. Manual hubs FTW. Manual hubs were around before Auto-Hubs and ADD.....

But HA! I figured it out..you have to let up on the gas for it to disengage!!

 

He doesn't mean auto hubs, he means the earliest 4x4s didin't have freewheeling hubs, the wheels and the axle shafts were permanently locked together whether the transfer case was in 2wd or 4wd so the axle shafts/diff gears/drive shaft and t-case gear would all be spinning and the only disconnect would be in the t-case.

 

aye. He confused me when he said "your".... I thought he was refering to mine specifically.

 

oh lol. I see it now. It's like
O P P E R T U N I T Y I S N O W H E R E
people read it differently...

 

uh..yeah..

/me runs and hides.