Alot of misinformation flying around here!! Frank show me the exploded diagram of one
of your mythical xcase. Yes putting it in 4hi or lo wothout the hubs engaged will
not turn the front wheels but it will keep everything lubed up for your monthly engagement that you should be doing to keep it all moving (use it or lose it!!) The
problem we are having here all goes back to lubrication and keeping fluids changed
that includes grease for the bearings and a med light weight oil for the hub internals!!
Do not forget that larger than stock tires is a special operating condition and you need to up your maint schedule to keep it rolling!!

 

I use the 4wd lo with the hubs unlocked all the time. I use it mainly to maneuver around the yard with a heavy load, or backing a loaded trailer into a bad spot. With a manual tranny it probably helps since you don't have to slip the clutch as much. What it will do is make all your ratios slower in the tranny, and give the truck more pulling power. If you happen to be on dry pavement or level ground where you really don't need the front hubs locked in for traction, you can leave them unlocked.

As the other poster said, you will learn more about the 4wd as you use it, and also find out if you are in a sticky situation, and have the truck in a bind, you are not going to be able to shift the transfer case until you put a auto tranny truck in neutral(park can give you a bind if you let it hold you on a hill) or put a manual tranny in neutral. This will relieve the pressure on the driveline, so you can shift it in whatever mode you want.

That's the same reason you might have to drive it a couple of miles or back up and move forward to get the front hubs to release. You said you had the hubs off, but I don't know if you took the snap ring off and remember the little cog that slides out with a spring behind it. This little pot metal cog is the only thing that drives the front wheel. The hub forces the cog to engage the splines, but that weak spring behind it is the only thing that pushes the cog back to disengage the drive. If there is any pressure on the cog, the spring will not push it out to disengage till the pressure is relieved by driving it.

 

And you must lube that with a med weight oil if it is too dry or lubed with grease it
will not move like it should, You should never need to reverse or move forward for
that matter to make the hubs engage or disengage!! Lubrication.

 

Yeah I do remember that spring that you are explaining, but they were only present on the stock Ford hubs. The warn hubs that I put on were sealed and they came greased already. I greased the axle splines that it slipped on to but thats all I did. In the spring I will be greasing that front bearings.

 

Go easy on the grease around the hub area. It gets really stiff in cold weather and makes the hubs hard to operate.

Here's a picture that has what they call the "pressure spring". That's the spring I was talking about, and it's way up near the wheel bearing area. They made slight changes to this system form year to year, so this picture may be slightly different than what you have.
http://www.autozone.com/images/cds/g...3d800a8af8.gif