front drive engaging?

Gents,

I got stuck in the mud yesterday, I'm just not sure my front axle is doing anything. I can put the Jimny into 4wd and 4wd low range. I hear the clicks of engaging (things), but when I got out and watched my wheels spinning, only the rear wheels were doing anything.

The dash 4x4 light is steady green, no flashing. Is this a known fault or easily rectifiable situation?

Many thanks

I only ask as it's raining hard and blowing a gale outside and I don't really want to lay on the ground under the car tonight.

I've found one of Martins guides.

www.bigjimny.com/images/documents/Check_the_vacuum_system.pdf

Think I'll have a read of that tonight.

If it's clicking both sides and the light is solid should be working unless you have a damaged diff or cv etc or it has been piped backwards

Put in 4wd, jack up a front wheel and turn the wheel to see if its locked. 2 mins if you have a trolley jack

Thanks guys,

The weather is wet and very windy just now and probably will be for another day and as i don't have a garage or shelter to work on the car, I'm not that keen on getting soaking wet.

Interestingly enough, I was reading another article on the forum under the topic 'Drivers side Vacuum hub permanently locked?' and it mentions that some hissing was heard during the process of elimination. I have heard a similar hissing from my Jimny in the past and wondered what it could have been. It sounded like it was coming from the engine bay or passenger foot-well. At first I thought it was rumbling bearings on the water pump or something like that on the serpentine belts, but now it's clear that there's probably a leak somewhere on the vacuum lines for the hub engagement process.

Think I'll have a good look at the security and integrity of the air-lines when I get a chance (and the sun is out )

If you heard the hubs engage and the 4wd light was on but not flashing then it sounds like the vacuum system is working fine. If the vacuum system did have a leak, it would only start hissing when you selected 4x4 and would stop after 5-10 seconds. I very much doubt you would hear it from inside the car!

Just to make sure, you are aware that even when in 4x4, you may only have 1 wheel spinning on each axle? So if you looked at the drivers side wheel and it wasn't spinning, the drive would have all been going to the passenger side wheel.