1997 Silverado Z71 front diff engagement

[Silverado350]

I bought this 1997 Chevy Silverado Z71 a few months ago for a pretty good price knowing it was going to need some work. It has believe it or not 190,000 miles on the engine and a new trans. It is a high mile vehicle but most of it on the highway. Every thing on the truck works great but the front differential will not lock in for 4 wheel hi or lo. It is electric shift and the lights change and the tranfer case will shift to lo range. I bought a new actuator from Chevrolet, which is a upgrade to the orginal actuator but I am having problem getting the new wiring hooked up correctly. My information does not seem to make it engage. Am I wasting my time or should I go for an after market manual shift?

[skipr]

Doesn't the wiring connector match your old one? That should be the easiest part of the install.

[Silverado350]

The connector is the same but there is a new wire that has to be spliced at another point in the wiring and then cut one wire as a ground. This is all addressed in a bulletin for the upgrade. Since the trans has been replaced the wires moved around and hard to trace and hard to identify the right place to splice.