I have an 06 H3 and 50% of the time the front wheels are binding up and almost stop the truck. It only happens when turning sharp and the tires will skip like a posi-track. It does it in forward and reverse. Any ideas?

 

1) Make sure your truck is not stuck in 4Hi Lock
2) Do not turn so sharp on hard dry surfaces, H3s are FT AWD and have a very tight turning radius (for off road) you do not need when parking.

 

How do you check to see if it is stuck in 4HI? the binding happens just arcing into a parking space or turning a corner. When whatever is not happening it turns on a dime. Thanks for the info so far!

 

On the center dash you should have a row of buttons at the upper left that say 4 Hi, 4 Hi Lock and 4 Low Lock. If the button to the far left, 4 Hi is lit all is good but if one of the others is lit then you are locked up front to rear for loose surfaces like dirt or snow and will cause binding on tight turns as well as take more power to spin the wheels and act like it wants to die mid turn.

 

Sounds like it is in 4 wheel but the correct button is lit. When I back down my drive at 50% turning it stops unless I throttle through it. Last week something popped under the front end doing this. I don't know...

 

This comes up weekly here on thursdays I guess. You will find endless discussions about the infamous plastic shift fork in the transfer case breaking.. DO some searching and reading,,,
NOTE it can be stuck in hi lock and the lights will not tell you.
They say where it SHOULD be,not is!
I would'nt drive till its fixed

 

Read the plastic fork discussion......got to be it. Thanks for the info.

 

Don't jump to conclusions, fact of the matter is not all plastic T Case Forks will fail. My truck has the plastic fork, zero issues. I ain't fixin it until when and if it ever becomes an issue.

Return to basics..... I didn't think it necessary to explain how to get your truck out of 4Hi Lock because there is a "SEARCH" function here. What you describe is common and most likely because you have been stuck in lock for a long time and did not know it. You can easily "feel" it. Trucks with the metal forks (mid 07 up) can get stuck in 4Hi Lock..... they get stuck by bound up torque that does not allow the T Case center differential to release, not the position of the fork or which dash light is lit.

The best place to do this is in a large gravel or dirt parking lot, but you can do it on a side street if you have to. Shift the T Case from 4Hi into 4Hi Lock, then shift into 4Lo Lock, drive 20-50 feet, stop. Shift the T Case back to 4Hi Lock, drive 20+/- feet. Shift out of Hi Lock to 4Hi, drive backwards turning back and forth a good ways (maybe 100+ feet) to unload pent up torque in the T Case. Now see if it made any difference. If not, do it again two or three times.

After that if you still "feel" the binding up front, then think plastic fork. Is it lunch time yet? .......... all this fork stuff is making me hungry.

 

Thanks Doc... Did it this morning and no change. I can here the it changing when I depress the buttons except 4W. 4Wlo works and 4Whi works but push 4w is makes no change. Putting it in the shop Tuesday, I'll let ya'll know the verdict. Thanks for the advice!