no locking hubs?

[thebrad]

So I did a little searching on here and I couldn't find anything on it. My truck doesn't have locking hubs and I'm wondering why. I've read that some of these trucks had full time 4wd so i assume that's the situation with mine? Can someone enlighten me?

 

[crazy4offroad]

If your truck is an automatic it probably has the NP203 t-case, which is fulltime. You can tell by the presence of "4-HI-LOC" and "4-LO-LOC" in your t-case shift pattern. So it wouldn't need lock-out hubs. But there is a conversion kit to make it part time.

 

[thebrad]

Yep I have both of those. So my next question, is it a good setup or should I be saving to swap out the tcase?

 

[crazy4offroad]

NP203 is chain-driven, less desirable. NP205 is the preferred t-case. Make sure you find one made to mate with an auto trans, I believe it has a seal on the input side. Hopefully someone else will chime in and tell you the exacts about that.

 

[oneluckypops]

C4 is right the NP205 is the most desirable, but IMO i wouldnt worry about it the 203 isnt a terrable transfercase, they actually have there better points.

 

[bucket]

I'd say it depends on what you do with the truck. If the truck doesn't see much hard off road use, there's really not much need to swap. Or if there's not much hi speed driving. Even if there is a lot of highway use, there's still the part-time kit as an option.

If you ever have to pull the 203 for any reason, it would be a good idea to swap in a 205 at that time. If you have the th350 it's a direct swap, but if you have a th400 it's more involved. You either need to swap trannies or tear down your current one to swap in the correct output shaft.

 

[thebrad]

Well I'd like to go beat the truck up once I get a better daily. Right now I just use it to go up to the woods and get to better shooting spots. I do a fair bit of highway driving though. It's 30 miles round trip when i drive it to work but I do that at most twice a week now. I'm definitely looking into the part time kit though. I'm sure always being in 4 is part of why my gas milage sucks so bad. Thanks for the info guys!

 

[crazy4offroad]

I wouldn't expect more than 2 mpg improvement from the part time kit. Main advantage is less front driveline wear from fewer spinning parts when they dont need to be.

 

[thebrad]

Hey its getting me closer to my goal of 10! Haha

 

[bucket]

Hey its getting me closer to my goal of 10! Haha

Glad to see you have realistic goals

10mpg should be pretty easy. I drove my K5 daily for a while, I got 10-11 mpg out of it with a mix of city/highway. The 203 has a part time kit installed in it.

 

[thebrad]

Yeah I think 10 should be easy with a tune up. The previous owner kept really good maintenance records (like for stupid stuff like fuses) and in the last 2 years there's no record of an oil change or plugs. I'll get a pic of the engine up soon. It's got a lot of goodies lol.

 

[89Suburban]

I ran locking hubs on my late 70's Burb even thought I had to run it in 4-hi-loc, it went down the road a lot better, especially in tight steering situations, you didn't get the "u-joint" thumping when hitting the gas and turning hard. I didn't keep the truck long enough to invest in the part time kit.

 

[thebrad]

I've always been told NEVER drive in 4 if you don't have to but I guess since that's how the truck is set up it couldn't be that bad? I was thinking it was really strange that I couldn't kick the ass end out when I gunned it around a corner but now it all makes sense LOL

 

[smurph20]

I drive mine in 4hi ever once in awhile just to work everything and help heat things up

 

[89Suburban]

I've always been told NEVER drive in 4 if you don't have to but I guess since that's how the truck is set up it couldn't be that bad? I was thinking it was really strange that I couldn't kick the ass end out when I gunned it around a corner but now it all makes sense LOL

I drive mine in 4hi ever once in awhile just to work everything and help heat things up

There is a big difference between 4-HI and 4-HI LOC.

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