I have got a 97 4x4 sport with the 4.0 engine, automatic tranny. I have got 138,000 miles on it and do not know if the tranny was ever replaced rebuilt etc...I recently had the ford dealership look everything over about 4 months ago and they said ieverything was fine ...

anyway, i was driving to Lake Tahoe yesterday and came to a down hill portion of the road. I was doing about 65-70 mph, I let off the gas and all of a sudden i heard a loud spinning noise coming from underneath. I pressed on the gas and it disappears, i let go of the gas again and the noise comes back. I pullover and while the car is still idling everything seems fine. I jump back in and start driving again and the same thing keeps happening. The next day i drive in to work and the noise is not that bad anymore, (but there is still some noise). When i'm cruising on the freeway doing about 65-70 and let off the gas, i'll still be going about 65 mph, but the RPM'S drop to just below 1000 and if i step on the gas it takes a second for the tranny to catch up with the engine.

I have looked through a few threads to see if this has happened to anyone else and couldn't find anything. The truck is still drivable and pulls fine from a dead stop. No blinking O/D lights or check engine lights either. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Can someone tell me what's going on and how much it is gonna cost to fix it? I love the truck , but money is a little tight right now. HELP PLEASE!!!

I would guess Torque Converter or OD bands.

is it better to replace the tranny with a refurbished one or to try to get it fixed? How much am i looking at spending? Anyone know of any good transmission places in the Sacramento, CA area?

If the tranny needs work then I'd go to a dealer and get it overhauled with Motorcraft Parts.

Good news - it is not a trnny.
Bad news - it is a t-caase.

There was a treed some days ago. Exactly the same symptomes were described.

Yep... Here is a link
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41647&highlight=4405

If the transfer case is the culprit in my situation, is there anyway to disconnect it so that i only have 2WD?

I think you can do it by taking it out together with drive shafts and you will need a driveshaft from 2WD explorer.

I read somewhere else that you can disconnect a wire underneath the car and it will only run 2wd? Has anyone heard of this?

Yeah, there are several threads on here about it. I think one is something like "if your 4x4 button looks like this" and someting else about a "brown wire mod", I think its brown.

Search for 4x4 wire mod

there are two different variations I believe. One is just simply disconnecting the signal wire behind the push button, and one involves disconnecting the heavy guage supply wire to the transfer case. Basically the signal wire activates a solenoid to turn on the supply wire to engage the electro magnetic clutch in the transfer, which drives the front diff. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Originally posted by pagz
I read somewhere else that you can disconnect a wire underneath the car and it will only run 2wd? Has anyone heard of this?

You can disable the electromagnetic clutch by disconnecting the brown wire that goes directly into the transfer case.

brown wire mod (http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41956&highlight=auto+4wd)

Make sure to read thru at least a few pages, because the mod gets more refined in the later posts.

well i was going to try the brown wire mod, but i think my problem got worse. I was driving it yesterday to get some gas and as usual it made some weird noises as i let go of the gas. but when i went to accelerate it again...nothing...i was coasting along as if the car was in neutral. I pulled over and tried the other gears...nothing, tried reverse...nothing but noise. Put it in park and it stopped making noise,, but i noticed that the car was still rolling wven when it was in park!! I hope i didn't make it worse. Can anyone tell me what they think is going on now??? It's at the Ford dealership waiting to be looked at.

Your t-case is gone.
You know like with manual t-case if you shift it to neutral, truck would still roll no matter if it in Park or in any gear. It just disconnects the output from the transmission to driveshaft(s). Same in your case with exception that you don't have neutral and you cannot connect output from the tranny back to driveshaft(s).

By the way the brown wire mod wouldn't have helped anyway. If your t-case was going, disconnecting any wire wouldn't stop t-case from being used. Output from your tranny would have still being passed through t-case which got a mechanical problem, not electrical.

You could still try to take your t-case out and install a driveshaft directly from tranny to rear axle. Your truck will be trully 2WD.

Thanks, I just got a call from the Ford Dealership and they stated that it was a bad transfer case motor and also a few sensors. The tranny is fine. THe total to repair is $646.00..Does this sound right/reasonable?

I don't know much about prices but it seems a way too high for the t-case motor. I am not even sure which t-case motor are they talking about.

Originally posted by Shurup
I don't know much about prices but it seems a way too high for the t-case motor. I am not even sure which t-case motor are they talking about.

The 4405 has a shift motor on the back of the transfer case. It is similar to the shift motor on the 1st gen Explorers except that it also has a four switch "encoder" that tells the GEM which position the motor is in.

When you select a 4wd mode on the dash (4wdAuto,4wdHigh,4wdLow) the GEM gets that information from the resistance of the switch, compares that to the position of the shift motor, and moves the shift motor if it is in the wrong position. If the encoder were screwed up, the shift motor might move to the wrong position (like neutral). BTW, you can get neutral, but you must have the option installed by the dealer. I think that they replace the switch and reflash the GEM, then you could get a selectable neutral for flat towing the truck.