So the front diff is now welded and it works great.  What I’d like is to remove the air pump.  I thought I’d read a thread where someone jumpered the wires so that the dash indicator lights up.  But I can’t seem to locate that. 

The 4WD light in the cluster is fed +12V along with the other warning lamps, and to turn it on, ground is supplied by the 4WD controller via an orange/black (orange with black tracer) wire, some vehicles had a standalone 4WD controller (mounted near the accelerator pedal), others had the 4WD controller integrated into the ECU/PCM, the input from the transfer case to the 4WD controller is a black/orange wire - just connecting the two together should allow the light to work properly without the pump in place.

Once again, you are the dude!  I’ll check it out.  Yes I remember some reference to integrated controller and if I’m right it may have been only v6 or only autos that had that or something.  I’ll poke around.  Thanks. 

I think most of the automatic transmission vehicles will have the integrated 4WD controller, there may be a few early ones with the separate ones - my car is a manual transmission 98 (the GV was introduced to most markets in 98) and has the controller separate.

So the front diff is now welded and it works great.  What I’d like is to remove the air pump.  I thought I’d read a thread where someone jumpered the wires so that the dash indicator lights up.  But I can’t seem to locate that.

Do you have photos of the welding? I welded mine but still have no 4x4...

Did you slide the clutch dogs to the engaged position before welding?

What normally happens is when you apply air pressure to the actuator it pushes the clutch dogs into mesh - the weld is to hold them meshed so no air is required.

Did you slide the clutch dogs to the engaged position before welding?

What normally happens is when you apply air pressure to the actuator it pushes the clutch dogs into mesh - the weld is to hold them meshed so no air is required.

Yes but we failed to take into account that we were welding on hardened steel, the welds held for approximately half a revolution of the diff  .
So we took it apart again and re welded it. This time using some chunks of 1/4" threaded rod as a spacer for the actuator ring. Works great now! And as an added bonus I can now change out a front diff in about 45min. Lol

You're right, Fordem IS the guy! He helped me with this exact same thing about a year and a half ago when I swapped a Sidekick front diff assembly into my XL7 steel housing. Here is the thread with more of the info you're after:

https://www.zukiworld.com/forum/technical-discussion-performance-modify/2nd-gen-with-sotf-deleted-what-do-do-with-air-pump/msg294958/#msg294958

Yes but we failed to take into account that we were welding on hardened steel, the welds held for approximately half a revolution of the diff  .
So we took it apart again and re welded it. This time using some chunks of 1/4" threaded rod as a spacer for the actuator ring. Works great now! And as an added bonus I can now change out a front diff in about 45min. Lol

Yep, took me two tries also.  First try had me hammering the half shafts in because they were not sliding in due to tight circlips which broke my small welds off internally.  Second try, more weld, and massaged circlips to be less fussy.  Works great!

I'm not sure but maybe this article would help?  https://www2.zukiworld.com/feature_tsb_shiftontheflyremoval/ 

-Eric

Not really, since we both already accomplished this mod and did so without replacing the carrier which isn’t necessary at all.  Plus, no pictures?  CMon you can do better than that!  Thanks though.  All info is good info, unless it’s wrong. 

Be aware the computer still needs to think that the motor is there and functioning as expected. Unless you have a manual transfer case.

We used a couple 50 ohm stereo resistors to read enough resistance to fake the motor engaging. Just put them on the wiring that would normally go up to run the actuator.

Not really, since we both already accomplished this mod and did so without replacing the carrier which isn’t necessary at all.  Plus, no pictures?  CMon you can do better than that!  Thanks though.  All info is good info, unless it’s wrong. 

You're welcome

-Eric