Proper placement of gearshift (1 Viewer)

[seaken]

OK , pretend I am stupid and perhaps I am . I have a 1987 BJ74 13BT automatic .
So I have my automatic gear shift with D,N,R etc . On the floor to the right of this I have gear shift with H2,N,L4 . Then to the right of steering wheel I have a push button with H4 on it .

So normal driving on the street when I want 2 wheel drive . Where should each of these be .

Now I gets a little slippery and I want to put it into 4x4 for driving the roads . Where should they be and how do I execute this .

I am asking this all because all of a sudden things seemed to have changed . I never used the gear shift on floor , which I thought was always in ( N ) . I would just stop turn hubs and push H4 button . But recently when I push H4 the light would not come on to show it was in gear and it didn't act as if it was . So I put the floor shifter into H2 then the light came on when I pushed H4 button . Now when I put the floor shifter back into ( N ) where I thought it always was I can't drive .

I am confused
Thanks

 

[Malahki]

The short shifter marked H2,N,L4 is your transfercase. It has to be in gear in order for your truck to move the same as your transmission needs to be in gear. The reason it has a neutral is for towing or vehicles with PTO winches among other things. So for everyday driving leave it in 2Hi. If you are on slippery roads you can manually lock your hubs in ahead of time and leave the T-case in 2Hi and then select 4Hi on the dash button when needed. If you want or need 4Low you will also need to manually lock your hubs in first and basically you need to be stopped before shifting T-case into 4Low

 

[Gun Runner 5]

N = neutral or in your case "no go".
Leave it in 2H unless you need serious 4 Wheel drive assistance.

 

[Behemoth60]

Took me a while to figure out my first auto transmission.
P=power
D=Don't go
N=Now go
R= Race

 

[seaken]

Thanks , for the info . I thought I had that that shift sitting in N since I got it . I have been driving it but all of a sudden it wouldn't shift into H4 when I pushed the button . After putting it into H2 yesterday and seeing that the button worked . I shifted it back to N but then it would not drive . So I don't know why it was before .
But thanks again ( scratching my head )

 

[seaken]

Thanks Behmoth for the Humour

 

[Gun Runner 5]

When driving a 13B-T coupled to a automatic gearbox the "R=Race" part requires a lot of imagination.
The "R" actually equals "reluctantly accelerates."