Dead 4WD

JW · June 5, 2010

2003 Limited V8 4x4

I mentioned in another thread that it appeared I had no 4WD. I have the truck off the ground nowand have confirmed the transfer case is doing nothing. I have movement of the front axle and driveshaft when rotating a front tire by hand, but no apparent connection to the rear. Running the truck in gear doesn't engage the front wheels in 4 High or Low. I do have slight movement of both driveshafts if I rotate one (that little bit of play) but once the gears engage, the one I'm not turning by hand stops moving.

This truck has never been off-roaded; it's remarkably clean underneath. If I remember correctly it has a chain-driven case. How could it not be working? Does it take a special fluid, or is that only for the AWD cases?

Limited02 · June 6, 2010

Have you tried changing the 4x4 control module? They are known to go bad, mine was and I replaced it, 4x4 works great now!!!

JW · June 6, 2010

I have not; I'm accustomed to manual shift cases and other mechanical devices, not all this electronic wizardry

Where is that module located and what does it cost? (And, is it similar between years - in other words, could I pull it from my wife's 2004 V6, which also has ControlTrac, and put it in mine for troubleshooting?)

JW · June 6, 2010

One other thing - would a bad module still allow shifting into low range?

Limited02 · June 7, 2010

JW said:
One other thing - would a bad module still allow shifting into low range?

If the module was bad, I believe it shouldn't allow for low range. Another thing to do is make sure your fuses are good. Under the hood should be a fuse box, check #17 & #18 fuses. Also look on the fuse panel that's located on the drivers side under the dash. Not sure which fuse #'s they are, but if I need to check the owners manual for you, I can.

I believe the module is located behind the glove box. I had the dealship replace mine because it was under warranty. If you don't see it there, then it's probably behind the kick panel on the passenger side front. It wouldn't hurt to swap the one in your wifes over to test it out.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions, please ask

Edit- 4x4 module is behind the glove box.

JW · June 7, 2010

Will check fuses in the morning. I found a pretty lengthy thread on ford-trucks.com about this; one guy there got lucky and just unplugged/plugged the harnesses and was off and running. No such luck here.

JW · April 25, 2011

OK...obviously it took a while for me to get to this, but I replaced the 4x4 module and still don't have 4WD. I ordered the same part that Silver State gave me for my VIN #. I checked the fuses again and all three are good (it's #12 under the dash), and as far as I can tell the wiring harnesses are all secure.

Do the shift motors go bad to the point that they don't do anything at all? I'm not getting any sort of noise out of it at all. I do still have low range and can hear clicking from the 4x4 module, just no front axle engagement

BigRondo · April 25, 2011

I had the same issue as you are having. No High range, transfer case would go into low but front wheels wouldn't spin, 4x4 dash lights flashing. I changed the 4x4 Control Module with no luck. Turned out to be a bad ground on the transfer case motor.

Hope this helps out.

JW · April 25, 2011

Ugh...you don't happen to remember which wire it was?

BigRondo · April 26, 2011

Sorry, all I know is that is was a ground wire for the motor. I actually didn't fix it myself. It was at my mechanic's having some other work done and I asked him to poke around the transfer case and check the wiring while it was up on the lift. He found and repaired the bad ground wire and all is well.

Others have told me that the wires are pretty easy to get to if you crawl under the truck but I never tried it. I'll try to round up some info from previous posts for you and post the results. I also have the shop manuals and wiring diagrams so I'll check those too.

Truth Explorer1 · August 2, 2011

4x4 pcm module

Hey there guys. Anyone by chance still have there extra, working 4x4 module? I am in need of one and figure I could help ya get some money back on it. Lmk if you do, and what you want for it! Thanks a million! :salute:

tower · August 3, 2011

BigRondo said:
I had the same issue as you are having. No High range, transfer case would go into low but front wheels wouldn't spin, 4x4 dash lights flashing. I changed the 4x4 Control Module with no luck. Turned out to be a bad ground on the transfer case motor.

Hope this helps out.

I wish I had seen this before I spent the money on a new module (did nothing for me), I looked at the wires on the case today and found one broken black wire on top of the case. Grounded wire to case and bingo works great.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

BigRondo · August 3, 2011

tower said:
I wish I had seen this before I spent the money on a new module (did nothing for me), I looked at the wires on the case today and found one broken black wire on top of the case. Grounded wire to case and bingo works great.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Glad I could help out.

Dead 4WD

JW

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Limited02

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JW

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JW

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JW

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BigRondo

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JW

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tower

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BigRondo

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