How to: The Comprehensive Brown Wire Mod Thread

[warrick]

i have a 96 sport i did the brown wire mod when the switch is on it humms

 

[Glen4X4]

Are you turning the switch on during travel on dry ground or slightly wet ground?

 

[warrick]

it works great just hums and on the fly off road

 

[yoster]

Hello everyone,

Been reading this thread but to my surprise I've found no references of doing this to a 4th gen 06-10 explorer.

Does anyone have the how-to for that generation?

Ideally we should probably get the original post updated to include the 4th gen. Might as well finish it up for all generations!

 

[chris2793]

this was a great thread man. thanks for taking the time to do all that work. mcuh appreciated.
id have to say the hardest part of the whole thing was putting the butt connectors on.

 

[Abbé Ioannes]

Is there anybody who tried that with a positive result?

 

[briwayjones]

Tried what? The brown wire mod? Yup tons here have done it and it works great.

 

[Abbé Ioannes]

The only thing that happened after I had done it, precisely according to the pictures, was that the driver´s window stopped working. Wicked car is that mine...

 

[austinmob]

The only thing that happened after I had done it, precisely according to the pictures, was that the driver´s window stopped working. Wicked car is that mine...

I would suggest that if your window stopped working then you accessed the wrong brown wire. There is one that is linked to that window and it is the wrong brown wire.

 

[Abbé Ioannes]

Might be so. However it was the only wire that went both left and right. I have had a lot of troubles with the T-case. I am thinking of turnig it full time "hillbilly like" 2WD. The case seems to be too complicated to expect it to work after 12 years. Having rebuild it completely now it´s a full time fourwheeler with no obvious cause.

 

[austinmob]

Heres what i did. First i disconnected the wiring clip in the kick panel below the drivers window. (this is the Aussie model right hand drive) what this did was disconnect the power window and the T case. So i ended up getting under the car and followed the wiring through the floor which went under the passenger seat. (dont forget its right hand drive).

Before i started to complicate things i cut the brown wire directly under the seat near where it comes through the floor. I didnt want to go muckng around with wiring behind the dash. I spliced two wires and ran them with the existing wires up to the dash where i mounted a (quality) toggle switch.

I figured cutting any wire behind the dash was asking for trouble so i did it the chickens way.

Works a treat.

Dont forget, the Aussie model may be set up as Opposite but you will have to check if this applies to wiring also. Follow those wires up through the floor and you will find your brown wire.

 

[hotstang111]

bad idea on a bw4405

i have run a interupter swith up to my center console (pretty slick setup if i can toot my own horn) but what happens is in the t-case the clutch plates slip all of the time in 2wd(worse if spinning tires) and it spripped all of the friction material off of my clutch plates to engage the front driveshaft. the broken off pieces float around in the drum until they get lodged between some plates and lock the front driveshaft to power. now its in full time 4wd, turning sucks, tires skip on turns, hell on halfshafts. i had to drop the case and clean out the friction material which is a pain to do. i ended up getting a new case because it actually broke the shift fork for 4wd low. now i just pull the front driveshaft for 2wd. the tcase engages the output still but it can just spin free so no damage what so ever to the case. its an easy out for the shaft six 8mm bolts into the cup on the t case and 4 torx bolts into the front dif, not bad at all and much safer

 

[gijoecam]

i have run a interupter swith up to my center console (pretty slick setup if i can toot my own horn) but what happens is in the t-case the clutch plates slip all of the time in 2wd(worse if spinning tires) and it spripped all of the friction material off of my clutch plates to engage the front driveshaft.

The plates do not slip all the time in 2wd any more than they would in 4auto. They will only slip when there is a difference between the front and rear driveshaft speeds, which only occurs during turns (which would happen in 4auto as well) or when doing burn-outs, which, you'll note, I addressed at the beginning of the write-up.

First, please note that because of the design of our transfer case, our systems are NOT designed to allow unlimited wheel spin. Allowing excessive wheel spin (e.g. roasting tires for a city block or running Control-Trac/BWM-equipped vehicles on a 2 wheel drive dynomometer) forces the transfer case clutch to slip. Excessive slipping causes a tremendous amount of shearing of the transmission fluid used in our transfer cases. This can result in burning of the clutches as well as the transfer case lubricating oil and is NOT recommended. Our systems are not designed to allow tire-roasting slippage of the transfer case clutch, and doing-so can result in major mechanical damage of the system which can require replacement of costly internal components of the transfer case. Again, make this modification at your own risk

I even used bold AND italics for emphasis. I'm not sure if I could have been any more clear...

the broken off pieces float around in the drum until they get lodged between some plates and lock the front driveshaft to power. now its in full time 4wd, turning sucks, tires skip on turns, hell on halfshafts. i had to drop the case and clean out the friction material which is a pain to do. i ended up getting a new case because it actually broke the shift fork for 4wd low. now i just pull the front driveshaft for 2wd. the tcase engages the output still but it can just spin free so no damage what so ever to the case. its an easy out for the shaft six 8mm bolts into the cup on the t case and 4 torx bolts into the front dif, not bad at all and much safer

Furthermore, I fail to see how any damage to the friction material or the clutch plates (or the ball-ramp assembly) could cause the shift fork to fail... I'm not seeing the correlation on that one...

 

[Glen4X4]

A couple years ago I performed this modification on a 95 and 96 explorer and worked 100%. I have not owned the 95 in over a year and I have a 00 that for some reason would continuously engage the 4wd if I got on the accelerator hard, so I performed the mod with of course just a 2way toggle for this truck with LED light and knew I performed the mod right because in "Auto" with toggle on the switch had a slight glow and in high or low mode the light illuminated fully. This worked for a day and now still the 4wd engages on its own which I didn't understand so I disconnected the wire from the toggle switch and still continues to engage, any insight into this gijoecam?

 

[hotstang111]

The plates do not slip all the time in 2wd any more than they would in 4auto. They will only slip when there is a difference between the front and rear driveshaft speeds, which only occurs during turns (which would happen in 4auto as well) or when doing burn-outs, which, you'll note, I addressed at the beginning of the write-up.



I even used bold AND italics for emphasis. I'm not sure if I could have been any more clear...



Furthermore, I fail to see how any damage to the friction material or the clutch plates (or the ball-ramp assembly) could cause the shift fork to fail... I'm not seeing the correlation on that one...

the shift fork was just the kicker into the new case but i personally just find it easier to pull the shaft, obviously everyone here knows how to use a wrench. most people use the brown wire mod for doing burnouts and whatnot so in most cases not the greatest idea.

 

[Randy96]

on a 96 with 2hi 4auto 4low does the brown wire have to be cut to work or could a quick connect be put on wire and ran to switch

 

[Randy96]

on a 96 with 2hi 4auto 4low does the brown wire have to be cut to work or could a quick connect be put on wire and run to switch

 

[ke4asc]

$ wheel Drive Control MOD...Working on it.

[ Good Evening,
I am Trying the Mod Because I have NO control at all over the four wheel Drive . It's the Strangest thing I've Ever Seen. It's Not Complete yet , But I'll let you know how it turns out. This Machine will go into 4 wheel LOW on it's own and at will... most of the time on start up how ever. Then I have shut it down wait 10 minutes for it to clear, and restart. Real strange.
I have already taken the time to run the wires and connected the switch.
I am tring a different approach though.. I am installing a dpdt switch that allows the choice of factory settings OR Manual over ride to 4 high.
By the way It's got a center OFF position For safety too, With that i can stop that relay for energizing at all if I want too.( that's the Idea anyway.)
The Big Test will be tomorrow. Hope it works. Any thoughts?

 

[ke4asc]

By the way It's easy to identify the correct wire, It IS as Shown in the picture, If you remove the tape from the bundle and Trace the wire down ward it will GO to the Relay
unit. I DID that just to make sure. Thought I'd mention that.

 

[austinmob]

Just follow the brown wire from the tx case up through the floor. Lift the carpet, cut the wire, splice the two ends onto new wire running up to where you want a switch. Install the switch, connect the wires and bingo.

Make sure you use equivalent wire to the brown wire and ensure a good quality switch.

The brown wire carries the brainwave from the computer
engageing the auto mode. Turn it off and the brains can send it.