adsm08
Senior Master Grease Monkey
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Ford Technician
TRS 20th Anniversary
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
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- 1987
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- Ford
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- 4WD
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Close. Center Axle Disconnect.I think I got this one.
CAD = Crappy Activation Device
Basically the short axle is always fully engaged to the front diff, and the long axle has a break in it that engages a splined collar, a lot like the slider hub in a manual transmission. This allows the front axle to be disconnected, since an open diff would then not really do anything, maybe spin the spider gears a bit. Jeep used them for a long time, but Ford's version wasn't particularly efficient or reliable and was ditched in favor of the IWE setup pretty quickly. The CAD units were used from 96.5 or 97 until the 04 Heritage body was done. The true 04s (the 6-lug ones) got the IWEs and they are still in use, more or less unchanged, at least through 2019, which is the newest F-150 I have worked on so far.