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brown wire mod

TrevorSmith

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July 3, 2005
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City, State
Burlington, Ontario
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Explorer Sport
I know it has been discussed numerous times and I have read all the threads on it but some things are still unclear to me. First of all where is the BEST place to hook in the switch. Underneath the seat or behind the radio? And second where do you hook up the ground wire from the switch?
 



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Hi and welcome... I understand the clarity issue :D . The BW mod has taken on a life of its own over time.

I would say anyhere from the left side of the radio (after the splice as GIJoecam mentions here:http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1189714#post1189714) to the transfer case will work since it's a straight run between these 2 points. This would include under the seat. Just don't hook it up to the right side of the radio (before gIjoe's 'splice') as many (myself included) have done in the past.

Any place you can ground the switch to the chassis will suffice.
 






so just cut the brown wire under the seat put in a switch and ground it to the bare floor somewhere and i dont have to worry about putting it in between all of these splices
 












I inserted my switch. Meaning, cut the brown wire, spliced in a few lengths and put the switch in my center console. and then back again.

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thats a good idea, i was trying to think of a clean place to mount the switch
 






ok so i must have missed something. if i were to do this i have to have a switch someplace that does what? one direction it can do awd and the other 2wd? again the clarity thing.....
 






ummm another ?....what is the success rate of this procedure? anyone have major malfunctions or machanical problems?
 






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All the brown wire does is cuts the power to your transfer case. With the switch off, you have 2wd only. When you turn it on, you can then use your electronic switches on the dashboard to engage 4x4. The mod is mainly for people who have auto4x4 and don't want that for whatever reason. AWD is not electrical though, I believe it's mechanical. The brown wire probably isn't even present on an AWD explorer.
 






ok so it kills that ####ing auto4wd ****..... is it save to "kill" power to transfer case? i live on a hill in a snowy area so the switch would get used couple times a day.... also would i want to turn it to auto or would i be able 2 keep it in 4hi and "kill" the case?.....
 






ummm another ?....what is the success rate of this procedure? anyone have major malfunctions or machanical problems?
The downside to this is when people use it to do too many burnouts -- the difference in the speed between the two driveshafts increases the oil's temperature and eventually kills the internals. There have been a few threads about this happening to people.

Success rate is pretty much 100% -- i mean the only way it could fail is if you cut the wrong wire ;). Or you cut the wrong wire, flip the switch, and out comes a banaphone from the glovebox -- actually that wouldn't be a failure, that'd be a 200% success rate, forget 2HI/4HI, i'd rather have a banaphone :thumbsup:.

matrix-bananaphone.jpg
 






I did the BW Mod this past weekend while I had the dash open to replace some dash bulbs, Works great, No more annoying studder.
 






just to reinerate
BWM ONLY if you have auto 4WD.

If you have 2wd then the BWM is pretty much useless. ( and rather silly)

If you have AWD then you cant do it.
 






ok so it kills that ####ing auto4wd ****..... is it save to "kill" power to transfer case? i live on a hill in a snowy area so the switch would get used couple times a day.... also would i want to turn it to auto or would i be able 2 keep it in 4hi and "kill" the case?.....

No. Cutting the power cuts off the power to the front drive shaft.

When you select 4 high from the switch on the dash, the GEM sends the signal to the Transfer Case Shift Relay to engage 4 high. This sends power directly to the Transfer Case Clutch Coil, essentially a 100% duty cycle.

If you select 4 low, the transfer case remains locked, but engages a set of planetary gears to obtain the low range gear reduction. The front and rear driveshafts are still linked solely by the Transfer Case Clutch. By interrupting the power flow to the TCCC when in 4 low, the transfer case disengages the front driveshaft, even though the planetary reduction gears are engaged. This results in a true 2wd low range

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149388&highlight=brown+wire+mod
 






worked perfect thank you very much love being able to put my 2000 explorer in 2wd
 






So newbee question here.
What is the difference beteween Auto 4WD and AWD.
Is there a hi low switch for Auto 4WD?
 






The V6 Ex's have the BW4405 t-case which has A4wd-4hi-4lo. Auto4wd is basically 2wd until the speed sensors on the transfer case sense a difference in speed between the front and rear drive shafts(such as the rear wheels starting to spin in snow etc.) then the clutch in the case engages and sends varying amounts of power to the front wheels until the speed of both shafts are the same. The V8 Ex's have the BW4404 t-case which is AWD, no ranges to switch. Power and torque to front and rear drive shafts all of the time. V6 equipped trucks have the range selector switch to the left of the radio on the radio trim, and the V8's have no switch.
 






So, sounds like the V6 has a better set up for off road.
 






In it's stock form, yes. A lot of people with the V8's have swapped in a 4406 t-case from the F-150's to get the same setup as the V6 Ex's. And you can tweak the V6 setup as well. Check out my swap thread in my signature.
 



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