1354e to 1354m swap wiring

[ibuytoys]

Hello,
I swapped a 1354m into my '96 getting rid of my slipping 1354e. I cut the brown wire at the old transfer case and the rest unplugged at the big connector. I reused the old VSS sensor which fit into the M no problems. My front axle disconnect isn't engaging and there's no blinking lights on the dash when I turn the switch into 4-lo to engage the front axle. Do I need to address anything in the wiring or should I just rewire the front axle disconnect and put a regular switch on it getting rid of all the factory 4wd control circuits?

 

[albi1cnobi1]

You can install a regular switch to handle the front axle disconnect. That way you can totally do away with the 4x4 electronics. There should also be a connector on the front of the t-case for the 4wd lights. The dash lights work by having 1 side going to ground. The other side always has power when the truck is on. You should be able to run 2 wires from the t-case connector to the dash light wires on the GEM. I think I have the colors and location somewhere. If I find it I'll post it up.

 

[albi1cnobi1]

The 4lo light is a light blue/black stripe wire on pin 10 of connector c283 of the GEM. The 4hi light is a grey wire on pin 14 of the same connector. If you can't identify which connector it is look for a light blue/black stripe wire next to a grey/black stripe wire. Thats the feed to the speedo on pin 9. The wire colors might be duplicated on different connectors but the sequence won't be. So only 1 GEM connector will have those 2 colors next to each other. Once you find those 2, count down 4 more wires to find the grey wire on pin 14. Then just splice the wires from the t-case into them.

 

[ibuytoys]

Thanks for the wire color info.. With everything unplugged at big connector should the dash rotary switch still control the CAD? I thought it would but maybe the GEM is allowing it due to the open circuits. I tried plugging everything back in at the connector and turning the switch doesn't move the shift motor at all.

 

[albi1cnobi1]

The GEM is waiting for a signal from the shift motor sensor plate that it's switched to 4wd. It won't work if it's not bolted to the t-case because it uses the case for it's ground.

 

[ibuytoys]

That makes sense. I'm going to rewire the CAD into a regular switch to bypass the factory stuff. Thank you for the help.

 

[gmanpaint]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88718

That thread will help you wire up the switch.

 

[ibuytoys]

Thanks for the link. I got it wired up along with a D&D Performance cable linkage kit and it seems to work great. One thing I did notice though is when it's in 4-Lo and driven in "Drive" the ECM really hold the upshifts a long time. In factory configuration does the GEM give the ECM a signal when the 4wd system is engaged which would alter the shift strategy?

 

[albi1cnobi1]

Yes it does. It wants to keep the gearing as low as possible. If the tranny were to upshift to say 2nd or 3rd gear you would have no torque to go along with the low gear, and that would defeat the purpose of 4lo.(low gearing and high torque)