truck rolls in PARK! 1996 AWD

I was doing service on my wifes 96 AWD explorer the other night and noticed a bolt backing out that bolted the front driveshaft to the transfercase. After farther investigation, 5 out of the 6 bolts were half backed out. Only one bolt was tight and the reason for the other 5 being loose is because they are all sheared off!!! So I ended up removing the front driveshaft for the time being.

Now when the truck is in park the truck rolls!! Shouldnt the tranny hold the truck reguardless if the front driveshaft is in or out? She came out to her truck yesterday in a parking lot and it had rolled back about 3 ft!!! the weird thing is, you cant push it in park..... but if you park it at an ever so slight angle, the truck will VERY VERY VERY slowly start to roll forward, It wil roll, stop, roll, stop, roll, stop.......

any help would be great!

PS: I used to drive around all the time with the driveshaft out on my supercharged X and never had this problem.

mine rollled in park with the front driveshaft out. Just use the e-brake

In the AWD, park gear is held through the front wheels. The transfer case has a clutch that will slip if the front d shaft is removed, allowing the vehicle to move. Use the e brake and try to find some replacement bolts asap.

mountaineergree said:

In the AWD, park gear is held through the front wheels. The transfer case has a clutch that will slip if the front d shaft is removed, allowing the vehicle to move. Use the e brake and try to find some replacement bolts asap.

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he's right.

I've got a set of bolts if you need them.

Hmmm wonder where I came up with them?

Do you know Evan?

Dan Whitaker said:

I've got a set of bolts if you need them.

Hmmm wonder where I came up with them?

Do you know Evan?

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I was just thinking I just got rid of some he could have used.

thanks for the info guys... thats strange that for all the years I had my x and the number of times my driveshaft was out it never rolled... or I never parked on a hill- LOL....

My dealer had the bolts in stock and i already picked them up this morning.... however getting the 5 sheered ones out is the main problem..... Ill take a look at it tonight.

thanks again

You could do 2 things. Drill a pilot hole into the bolt and use an easy out and thread it out(not as easy as it sounds)

Or you could weld enough material on the broken bolt and then weld a head on there and take it off.

I never have luck with easy outs
I have had luck with a dremmel cutting a slot and using a screw driver, but these bolts are likely a bit tight for that.
Welding a nut and some rod onto each broken bolt seems to work the best, at least in my experience

Just throwing this out.

Could he remove the flange from the t-case to make it easier? Or does this create more work & possible problems?

I believe you would have to seperate the t case into two halves to get the flange ooff its part of the output shaft, although all my AWD t cases dont use the crappy CV style shaft...

He has the awd case thats like ours (well was ) But yeah, there is no bolt to take the flange out for the front from what i can remember.

Those bolts typically aren't that tough to remove (when unbroken) They aren't torqued down too hard (at the least the 98-01's I have seen). It is possible that a slot and screwdriver would work, but if you have a welder, that route may be safer.

I wouldn't bother with removing the output flange. It would be a lot of work.