I made and tested a part time kit for 4484/4493/4494, to save wear and tear on the front drive line plus gas mileage increase with a great power increase. This is a plug and play kit goes into the transfer case removes 40/60 split differential power is 100% to the rear wheels. 4wd is the turn of the dial (lock) and low the same. 2wd is where your awd mode is.
George tcu

 

How do you disconnect the front hubs from the half shafts, front diff and front prop shaft?

 

The front diff still turns just no more power to the front with the kit.
Jeep and dodge has been doing it this way for years.
Live front axle (means it turns all the time) no power from tc, this is also done this way for shift on the fly.
George
631 226 1448

 

Which means the engine is still driving the same load (the entire front drivetrain) just doing it all from the back.

 

your no longer driving the front it’s only turning with 0 torque loss . I have really great results with this kit. I have been doing Awd to 2wd kits for years just the savings on front wear and tear plus a nice gas mileage increase makes it a great up grade

 

First post on the forum
That sounds like a great idea. Can you please share links where to buy this? I am new to the forum and about to buy an H2.
Thanks in advance.

 

No he can't because that would be spamming this site without purchasing the right to advertise from admin. He is welcome to contact admin to discuss what it takes to become a sponsor in a limited or extensive capacity.

It would be a great idea except.....

your engine/transmission still has to push and turn the front and rear drive train (respectively) until you also install hubs capable of unlocking from the front half shafts so that the hubs can free wheel allowing the front drive shaft, differential and half shafts to remain motionless until needed.

 

I am new to trucks and AWD system so excuse the stupid question.
I understand that the front drive shafts and and differential will still be in motion and therefore have wear but if they do not have to "work" the front wheels, isn't it achieving the main purpose which is to reduce the parts that are powering the truck and therefore achieve better gas mileage?

 

Example
H3 alpha with front prop shaft disconnected only got 1mpg better mileage.
All of the rotating parts like front diff, half shafts are still rotating causing drag.

 

I would expect there would be a minimal improvement, like Tainter's example.

May be a bit before your time...... but back when GM built full time 4X4 trucks when gas was cheap, mid/late 1970s before they developed automatic locking front hubs and then the shift on the fly 4X4, those trucks used the NP203 Transfer Case. There was a very popular part time kit, I bought one, installed it in my '79, bought Warn manual hubs to swap out the GM FT locked hubs and everything was the berries. Old school, used to have to get out and lock those front hubs when you needed the front live. Add a built 350CI and it was really cool to do hole shots in low 2WD. That truck could do doughnuts on dry pavement.

Unfortunately, with the front hubs used by the Hummers, there is no present free wheeling auto locking hubs ready for a swap. When our OP gets that part of the equation down, I'll be front of the line for a conversion.