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Thermo-actuators suck.

DieselSlug

DieselSlug

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Location
Fabius, NY
I have been getting back into residential plowing this season. i have about 6 driveways. The plow stays on the truck almost constantly now (well except for today, my Jeep is in dire need of an alignment, have an appt. on the 20th.) I am shifting the thing in and out of 4wd due to having ZERO ballast. (Truck had a bad starter for a few weeks, so it sat in the garage.) Has any one tried the posi-lock products? These replace the Thermo-actuator unit. I would way rather just pull two levers and have it be in, than the one and wait for the element to engauge. I replaced the thermo-actuator in my old truck, but the new one even took forever to engauge. Its getting to the point where i have to shift the truck between forward and reverse and rotate the tires a good bit to get it in, its definately getting slower, but id rather not replace it when i know the new one is going to be slow too? Advice is greatly appreciated!
 
I have seen conversation about replacing the thermal unit with the more electronic used in later years - its something I need to do at some point on my 95...
 
I think i remember seeing something about changine to the electronic style one, but those actuators are more expensive and you have to change the pigtail iirc. I had a '97 tahoe that was push button, and it engauged ok. Still took a little bit. I remember that one popping in and out of 4wd whenit was trying to engauge.
 
Here is a '95 and older one, and an electric one.
 

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Sven, (chevylover) may have a mechanical one. I know he has praised their merits before.
 
I have the newer electronic one, works great, the thermal unit crapped out on me after 250k so I went with a full electronic one. The pigtail is easy to hook up, splice into one wire on the transfer case if i remember correctly.
 
NVW said:
Sven, (chevylover) may have a mechanical one. I know he has praised their merits before.
Click to expand...

YES, the posi-lok system is a manual replacemant for both styles. The TLA and the electric version.
Totally manual, works everytime, stays engaged after engine shut off AND you will get 2 LOW for manouvring trailers
on tarmac. So why wait ?

Cu,
Sven
 
My dad put the posi lock on his truck, I think it would work great for plowing. You still have to have the truck rolling to get it to engage the front.
 
Michaeljp86 said:
My dad put the posi lock on his truck, I think it would work great for plowing. You still have to have the truck rolling to get it to engage the front.
Click to expand...

Which is fine. I still stand behind my theory of, "Engage the 4x4 BEFORE you need it.". If you wait until you're stuck to engage 4x4... good luck.
 
I want to get the posi, but right now the price is a little steep, with Christmas coming you know the story.. im afraid that the way the posi-lock bracktry bolts to the front axle i wont be able to get them off they are so rusty. Rust is always the first to take into consideration here.. I might give the electronic unit a try, since i can get a used unit at the junkyard for cheap, ill just get spares.
 
A guy I used to work with said he had a friend who had one go bad and he busted it upen and pushed the pin out so it always kept the front end engaged.

The posilock is way over priced, all it is is a cheap throttle cable, a flimsy bracket, a pin, and a aluminum plug with a whole in it for the pin. I would imagine someone could build this setup pretty easy.
 
Michaeljp86 said:
A guy I used to work with said he had a friend who had one go bad and he busted it upen and pushed the pin out so it always kept the front end engaged.

The posilock is way over priced, all it is is a cheap throttle cable, a flimsy bracket, a pin, and a aluminum plug with a whole in it for the pin. I would imagine someone could build this setup pretty easy.
Click to expand...

Sure, there is an applictaion called :

Perm-Lok
Part # 1000

kit1000_lg.jpg



Cu,
Sven
 
Splice it into the brown wire on the transmission side of the 4 wire plug behind the fuel filter manager. Readily accessible and out of the weather. Nary a problem since. Can't say that with other suggested locations such as transfer case or alongside shifter at the transmission tunnel.
 
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