Re: '88 Chevy K2500

Posted by Jon Hagen on September 10, 2006 at 20:01:05 from (69.26.29.132):

In Reply to: Re: '88 Chevy K2500 posted by Allan In NE on September 10, 2006 at 18:13:48:

Tweeter,your pickup if original has that wonderfull thermal actuator to lock the front axle that takes 30 seconds or more to engage. It is mounted on the front axle and consists of a little hyd cylinder like thing with a 12V heating element and some sort of fluid inside. When you pull the transfer case lever into 4 wd it also sends power to the heating element in the actuator,and in 30 seconds to a minute it heats the fluid to the boiling point,which creates pressure that extends the actuator piston and locks in the front axle. That time delay is plenty long enough to get you really really stuck in mud or snow. It also means that if you switch the truck off for a minute,the actuator will unlock the front axle and your back in 2wd for another minute or so. Makes an absolute pig out of an otherwise good 4wd system.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though, GM realized how bad this thermal actuator system was and made a electric motor driven actuator that locks in instantly and will not unlock untill you put the transfer case in 2wd,even if you turn the truck off for an extended time.
This is a bolt in retrofit for a half ton or light duty 3/4 ton. It can be fitted to a HD 3/4 or 1 ton,but requires a little grinding on the axle housing to make the larger actuator fit. I did the conversion on my 92 chev K35 one ton last winter and wish I had done it years ago for the above mentioned reasons. The conversion consists of the motorized actuator and the wiring harness conversion that is specific to your year model. Installation is just to screw in the new actuator,plug in the harness adapter and hook up 1 new wire at the transfer case.

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