Nissan Hardbody Truck 4 wheel drive

Hopefully this will help..

Most 4wd systems (bar landrover which is permenatnt 4wd) are only designed to be engaged on lose surfaces as in a ideal situation 25% of all power is transfered to each of the wheels (hence how you get your traction). As you know when turning a corner the outside wheels have to traval a greater distance than those on the inside, in 4wd the wheels cannot do this as they are locked to turn at the same speed, hence your locking up and then having to reverse...

This is commonly known as 'wind up' on the transmission.

Off road the wheels can spin slightly so you dont get the 'wind up'

To test the theory find a loose graval car park and drive round in circles in 4wd, you should hear the tyres scrunching slightly which is the spin.

Hopefully this makes sense, its easy to explain in a vehicle but explaining by word is slightly harder!

Regards Chris

This sounds similar to the problem I sometimes get on my Discovery, after I have disengaged diff lock, the steering doesn't want to work.
I have found that putting it into reverse & driving backwards a short distance tends to "unwind" the transfer box, & everything returns to normal!