Yes, it’s bad to drive around on solid surfaces in 4 wheel drive. You’ll experience wind/bind up because the wheels on the front/rear are trying to travel at the same speed, but are covering different distances. When you turn, the wheels on the rear need to rotate slower that the front wheels... Your truck will try to compensate by hopping or scrubbing tires on the pavement to even out the difference in rotation/speed. Not good for the tires or transmission.
If you have front wheel locking hubs, unlocking them provides a temporary solution. This essentially defeats the drive to the front wheels and gets you back in rear wheel only.
Your yellow knobbed 4x4 selector should have a very visible spring that runs the exterior length of its selector shaft - from the point it exits the transmission tunnel, right up to the yellow knob. The point of this spring is to “Pop” up the yellow selector shaft when you put the truck out of 4x4.
To put your truck out of 4x4, with the clutch depressed, pull the red (low/high) selector all the way back and then move it all the way forward. The yellow knob will pop back up as the red knob is pulled back. If it doesn’t release, put the truck in neutral (leave the red low/high shifter in the middle position) and try rolling the truck back and forward a few feet and turn the steering steering wheel left to right as you do. This will get any gear wind/bind worked out of the drivetrain and make it easier to release the yellow lever.
Report back what you find.
Last edited by lumpydog; 12-23-2017 at 06:37 AM.
1968 Series IIa
1997 Defender SW (Original Owner - Sold)