[Hipine]

Don't use 4wd unless you're on a loose surface. For rainy pavement, you're better off with the right tires than using 4wd. Search the forum for recent posts on drive line wind-up.

Is there any chance that the gear ratio was changed in the rear axle? If the PO was too cheap to swap gears in the front axle too he might have just pulled the DS to prevent accidental damage from using two different ratios in the two axles by using 4wd by accident. It's a stretch I know, but I can't think of anything else that would cause a "braking" sensation.

-Dave G.