Alright. I am restoring a 76 f150 4x4. And i know the tranny is shot. but when the truck is idle'ing and i accidently had the 4 wheel drive on. but the locking hubs werent engaged. but the front drive shaft was spinning. wouldnt the truck move if i engaged the hubs and put the truck in drive??? or is this whole trans shot and the transfer case shot?

 

I'm not that familiar with the 70's trucks, but I can only guess that if the front shaft turned then the front wheels should be powerd if the hubs are engaged. If the truck has some type of fulltime 4X4 setup than it could be a transfer case problem. Maybe a previous owner installed manual hubs incorrectly on a Jeep or Chevy type fulltime setup. I don't know, I'm just drawing on recollections of 70's GM and Jeep 4x4's with full time setups and no locking hubs. Is the truck an auto or manual? What transfer case? Was the rear driveshaft turning? This sounds more like a transfer case problem to me.

 

If I'm reading this correctly: You had the truck in gear (assuming auto trans) and engaged the 4x4 with the transfer case. You did NOT engage the manual hubs for the front wheels.

If the truck was sitting on all four tires and in drive, with the parking brake on, the front axle will definately turn because you didn't lock in the hubs. It's free to spin all it wants, that is untill you LOCK in the front hubs, which engages the front wheels.

I'm sure if you tried it again with the hubs LOCKED in, the front shaft would not turn at all, just like the rear. That is as long as your lockers are in good working condition.

The same thing would happen while you were driving: if you had in 4x4 and didn't lock in the front hubs, the front driveshaft and axles would spin, but they wouldn't be hooked to the front wheels so it would be pointless


I'm curious why you think the trans and transfer case is bad? It sounds like the transfer case sent the power to the front like it should, you just didn't allow it to get to the wheels by NOT locking your hubs. Think of the lockers as the "clutch" for your front wheels, if you don't engage them, you're not gonna get the wheels to turn (even if the driveshaft and axles are spinning). No locker engaged = no power transfer to the front wheels.

I hope that you are just mis-understanding the setup and calling your trans and transfer case bad because the lockers were not LOCKED. Best of luck!