Vacuum hubs picture engaged hubs

Dear forum members,

A month ago I bought a Jimny for our daughter to drive in.. ( and for me fun as well as a project to "restore" and ofcoarse to drive offroad)
The one item I seem not to be able to fix myself are the vacuum hubs..(I read all the posts...)
Replaced the vacuum hoses, checked the valves, vacuum switch etc and everything seems to work (you can hear the vacuum in the hubs) but no physical engaging of the hubs unfortunality.. Removing the black "air locking hub assembly" shows a nice clean axle, circlip and thrust washer etc..but should it be possible to engage the hub manually?
If someone has a picture of can explain me what should move you would help me a lot..
I have the technical manual wich was a great help to check all the electronic components but it gives me not a clear idea if the next step is to remove the wheelbearing or if I can fix it without doinng that..

my vac hubs have packed in and all the recent snow in sheffield yes i put it in 4wd manually by undoing the 6 bolts on each front hub and wobbling the cogs in each hub till they pop out then fix them back on opposite to put back into 2wd bit cold on fingers in the snow but better than getting stuck

bigjimny.com/index.php/forum?view=topic&catid=7&id=55862

fast forward wrote: my vac hubs have packed in and all the recent snow in sheffield yes i put it in 4wd manually by undoing the 6 bolts on each front hub and wobbling the cogs in each hub till they pop out then fix them back on opposite to put back into 2wd bit cold on fingers in the snow but better than getting stuck

Mine have been locked like this and the pipes on the back of the hubs blocked off to stop the water getting in for about two years, no need to take them apart and "unlock' them, 4wd is disconnected when you move the transfer lever , or button, back to 2WD.

No need to unlock except that you are dragging your front driveshaft and axle along for the ride, so you will see increased wear there and worse fuel economy.

Thanks for the replies and comments..
After looking at the pictures I noticed that my airlocking hubs where not complete! bought two used ones for €80,- installed them this weekend and it works great now...

Pleased to hear you had an easy fix .....