BW 44-44 to BW 44-45 Swap

Mine is still working perfect as well

 

Probably a stupid question, but I saw it mentioned in here the the NV246 was used on the older trucks and had auto as well as a true locking 4wd. Wouldn't that be the one we should want to switch to? Or does it not work in the newer ones? Just thinking out loud here

 

I didn’t want anything to do with a clutched transfer case after my experience with the 44-44 so I never looked into swapping an NV246

 

I'm surprised the ECU (?) can change the way the physical transfer case works ... is the 44-44 effectively the same internally as the 44-45 without the "software" to enable 4WD Auto?

 

The 44-44 and 44-45 are two different transfer cases. The 44-45 does not have the clutch assembly that the 44-44 does

 

That was my understanding ... so how would not making the change in Alpha allow it to act like a clutched TC as described? It doesn't make sense to me. If you put in the 44-45 and you put it in 4WD (and the actuator puts it physically into 4WD) it should be locked, end of story.

 

Well, you do need to make the change in Alfa, but....

There is an encoder motor attached to all of the xfer cases. The BCM basically controls that motor based on the transfer case type/model setting.

The motor turns to certain positions which internally to the xfer case represent certain "modes". The 44-45 doesnt have an automatic "mode" so the BCM setting for a 44-45 takes that into account and wont allow the encoder to go to that position for that xfer case.

 

I completely understand that part of it, but, unless I'm misunderstanding @Falcon1772's post, the TC still acted like the 44-44 until he made the change in Alpha - i.e. the TC slipped for awhile with only the rear wheels spinning before the fronts would try to grab. Did I just misunderstand the post / test?

 

Ahh did not realize you were referring to a post that far back.

Im not quite sure what happened there, TBH.

 

That's exactly what it acted like. It was like a worse version of the 44-44.
The NV246 has me intrigued tho as it would seemingly provide the best of both worlds. Locked in "lock" and auto in "auto"