Transfer lever jumping back into 4WD

Hello everyone,

I’ve recently took my 2001 Jimny to a really shady mechanic which also ended up ripping me off and causing damage where you can’t see or know.

Anyway, he replaced the front axle differential and installed diff e-locker on it, the diff locker seems to work fine, no complaints.

I’ve owned the Jimny for 4 years now and everytime I put it in 4WD I saw flashing 4WD light but it always engaged, worked perfectly, and when I disengage and go back to 2WD, it would always disengage no issues at all for years.

The issue I’m facing recently after I took it back is
1. When I put it in 4WD the light doesnt flash anymore (he cut the wires of the sensor on the transfer box for some reason, I fixed it)
2. When I put it back into 2WD after 4WD, and continue driving it doesn’t disengage and the lever shakes hard then goes back into 4WD-h, I have to drive in reverse for a few meters after switching to 2WD for it to disengage
3. I found that some of the vacuum pipes were cut (Not sure if its him or its been like that, I don’t remember if my hubs were fixed)

I really liked how it used to be, just put it in 2WD and keep going, I prefer not to reverse and never had any issues before he messed it up.

Is it natural for it to stay in 4WD unless I reverse? Maybe I didn’t need to reverse before because my vacuum system worked?

He tried convincing me into buying manual locker hubs but I kept saying no so he might have messed the vaccuun system to make me buy it.

I would really appreciate any help or ideas

He replaced the front diff with one with a locker, or fitted a locker to it?

There are several different diff ratios.

I never trust anyone else's work, so the first thing I'd do is engage 4wd (with the locker open) and jack up both wheels on one side.

Then mark the lowest point of each wheel, and rotate the back one by hand through 5 turns, then see if the marks still align.
If they are obviously out, the diffs are different, and the transmission is winding up, which is why it won't come out of 4WD.

Tbh, I doubt if it was driving the front wheels before  with the light flashing anyway, unless someone had put the hubs into drive and cut the vacuum lines.

He said he took my old “broken” differential out, got a new second hand one and installed the e-locker on it then fitted it, he also said it was 10 bolts which is weird considering my Jimny is 2001 and it should be 8 bolts so I believe you already figured it out.
I will do the wheel check you mentioned first thing tomorrow.

Thanks alot for the help, much appreciated, I’m learning to do everything (hopefully) on my own

My 2004 is 10 bolt 3:9 ratio
 

So I did jack up one side and marked the bottom of both wheels then spun the rear wheel 5 times and stopped on the starting point, the front one came off by a 1/4 rotation.

Is it natural or too much? 

*The markers are the black electrical tape in the pictures attached

This would imply to me you have fitted a 10 bolt vvt front diff 4:3 ratio 
So miss matched diff's causing gear wind up 
I would say remove the front prop shaft till you sort this out

Did mechanic say he needed to grind axle case to get the diff in 

Definitely do not use 4wd