Slow tcase shifting

[agent orange]

Ok, heres the problem. I replaced my shot vacuum solenoids with mac valves, which are very sano looking and work well. My problem is that it takes several minutes for the 4wd light to come on, although it turns off right away. My hose situation is kinda ghetto right now, i didnt have enough hose on the truck to work and my local parts store didnt have hose the size i needed (although im gonna go look again today) so right now there are sections of 1/4 inch rubber hose mated up to the stock small hoses that are stock. My question is, could the extra volume of air be causeing the slowness? I figure that may be an issue, but im also conserned about the vacuum diapraghm itself. There is definitly plenty of vacuum from the manifold (aka that line isnt plugged), and im gonna replace the hoses tonight if i can and see if that helps. Also, i figured i could test the lower hoses that run to the hard lines for air tightness (well, all of them i guess) with my vacuum pump and also see if the tcase engages faster with vacuum direct from the hand pump. If i do this, how much vacuum should i apply to get it to actuate the shift collar? 10 lbs? And if it still is really slow, how do i go about removing/troubleshooting the vacuum shifter assembly? Any help would be appreciated as usual.

Matt

 

[agent orange]

Ok, heres an update. I hooked my vacuum pump up to the 4wd actuating side of the diaphragm and it didnt engage the 4wd in the minute i held between 10-15 pounds of vacuum on it. It was slowly losing pressure (like a pound or two every ten seconds) so i figured it was possible that i had a leaky hose somewhere. I replaced all the hoses topside, i replaced the small rubber lines that bridge the gap between the hardlines at the bottom of the firewall, and the large hoses that run to the diaphragm look fine (and are so thick i dont imagine they would have any cracks anyways, all the hoses on my truck are still pretty good). So, that tells me that something in the shift linkage/diaphragm is hanging up or not installed properly. How does one go about inspecting all that? It looks like the cover comes off of the diaphragm, should i just pop that off and check out the diapragm? Could the shifting mechanism need to be cleaned or lubed? I had the tcase rebuilt at the same time as my tranny and its possible to guy put it back together wrong. Cmon fellas someones gotta know how to inspect the shifting mechanism.

Matt

 

[Tinker]

The Spook would know.

 

[agent orange]

Gratuitous bump, any tcase wizards wanna help a brother out?