I have a 2003 4door 6.0. I have had problems with the front end in snow/ice etc. I lifted it to check the front vs back ration and foudn the front to have positraction. The truck pushes through the turn terribly whichmy guess is due to the posi. Would this be the cause? And is there any fix or am I stuck? No idea where to go with this as The rest of the truck is perfect,but this is dangerous enough I cant have it. thx forany input

 

Exactly what do you mean by "pushes through the turn terribly". Does it go straight, slide, or what? The point of posi-traction is to help you keep one tire still as the others turn so you don't slide down a hill as you are going up a slick road if the other three are spinning. The non moving tire acts like an anchor. If both front tires are getting traction then you should have no issue. If you want both tires to pull you through even when slipping then put a selectable locker in the front like an ARB or the sort. I really like the ARB but it is hard on the stock axles.

 

i think what he is saying is when he turns and his posi is engaged, one of the wheels slips/drags because the other wheel (outside wheel of the turn) is spinning faster and making the other one drag. My friend has the same problem. Dont know how he fixed it though. Will find out soon.

 

Ill try to explain better. I had posted earlier that it seems as though when in 4wd my rear tires are spinning faster than the front. Even on straight roads, it is just not acting like it should. But as for turning, fast or slow, if I am on slick road and give it gas at all, I go straight rather than the front grabbing and pulling me through the turn as it should. I just realized today it had Posi, so thought that may be the problem, but I still think it is the gear ratio front vs back tires. Thanks for the help, seriously. Im stuck as what to do from here.

 

You can check the gear ratio by just getting the truck off the ground and marking where the pinion and the tires are then spin them and count how many times you turn the the pinion until you get a full turn on the wheel it wont be exact but if its just under four turns it should be a 3:73 and just over four should be 4:10s.

 

If you are indeed having the truck plow straight due to one wheel spining and the other holding still, you can use the old 4-wheelers trick of applying a little break pressure to fool the posi-traction into thinking that the spining wheel is getting traction, That way the wheel that is holding still will pull as well. Also a selectable locker will help this situation.

 

Thnaks smoke20, I know nothing about the locker. Where wouild I go to read up on them, learn about them? can that be added to any vehicle then? thanks alot for the help, I havent gotten much in the way of direction to head with this. My main thing here is to lift it again and check the gearing front vs back
thx again

 

You can look at peterson's 4wheel and off road they have alot of info in their mags and probably alot on-line as well. Since this would be in the front you want a selectable locker so that you can disengage it when not needed. This way you avoid the pulling you get in the front from a full time locker. Also you will not get the clicking sound that is common when turning since one wheel is trying to turn faster than the other. This option is not cheap though. I like the ARB locker. They have been around a long time and have most the bugs worked out. The ARB is engaged by and air compressor, but other options are electric trac which is electric magnets engaged, and there are some cable engaged. The other advantage of the ARB is that you get an air copressor mounted under the hood, in case you like to air down tires for off-roading you can than air them back up. Any of these options will help. First though I would try applying a little brake pressure to see if just defeating the posi-traction does what you want. We hardly ever get snow here so it is hard to tell what will work on these trucks for me. This did work well on my old 68' Bronco when I lived in the mountains.

 

The actual website is www.4wheeloffroad.com, then in the top left search locker lowdown. The article is about halfway down the page. Thsi will get you more info to start with.

 

thx alot for the help, I still believe it has something to do with the gearing other than the posi. It even dangerous on straight highway with mostly covered snow or ice. I am just used to my 97 that was awsome in that case and this is terrible. It is very dangerous if you were not aware of it. kinda defeating the pupose of the 4wd in my opinion thanks again, ill see what I can find out thx