When I bought my 2002 Kia Sportage, I had problems with the vacuum system for the lockouts just like everyone else. I replaced them with manual lockouts and haven't had problems since. Last fall, I had a local mechanic replace the wheel bearings, but that is all that has been done. Yesterday, I was traveling in the snow, and came to a T in the road. When I took off from a complete stop, my back wheels lost traction -- I discovered that my 4 wheel drive was no longer working. Got out of the vehicle and checked the lockouts -- the one on the right (passenger side), had kind of kicked from the "locked" position, back about half way between free and locked. Put it back into place and no 4 wheel drive. Limped it back home after work, and decided to pull the lockouts off and inspect them. They seem to be working fine. When I went to put them back on, the shaft spline on the passenger side was fine, and I slid the lockout back onto the spline. On the driver's side, I went to put the lockout back on, and there is no spline -- just the end of a straight shaft -- I can see the spring ring on this shaft, but there is no visible spline for the lockout to fit over. Is this weird? Is this lockout just a dummy? No spline, no shaft protruding, no nothing to make this lockout work. Is this normal? Has something slid out or slid in or something? Anyway, I put it all back together and I still don't have 4wd. When I am moving at a crawl, and slide it into neutral, and shift between 2wd and 4wd I don't feel or detect anything changing like I used to. At a full stop, in drive, and shift between 2wd and 4wd, I feel quite a bit of resistance in the differential shifter. Could I have lost a U-joint in the front end? Anyone have any ideas or advice? Any explanation of the "dummy shaft" would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.