1997 Explorer Sport w/Controltrac AWD

[tsfelt]

Ok Guys,
Found the site a few weeks ago and love it. I just hope you aren't gonna tell me I bought a lemon.

For my sons 1st car, I found a 1997 Explorer, 150k, in relatively good shape. Only problem is no reverse. On the drive over here to show it to me, the guy lost all fwd gears. To make a long story short, I got a great deal on it.....but now I'm wondering.

I have fwd/rev in 4wd Lo, but nothing in 2hi (auto) or 4 Hi. After spending a few hours researching (mostly on this forum) I am not convinced the transfer case is bad, but the shift motor is the culprit. Here lies the problem.

The transfer case motor rebuild on this forum - my apologies, I forget the posters name - are excellent.....for a 7 pin motor rebuild. Looked great until I crawled underneath and found a 14 pin connector, with what I believe are the front & rear speed sensors, all wired to the same plug to the harness. I believe (based on the case tag info) that this is a Borg-Warner 4405-08 model transfer case

No problem.....except that no one lists the 14 pin connector shift motor!

7 pin motors can be had for $58-85 online or at the major chains all day long. Is the 14 pin connector that rare (i.e., is this model so bad they quit making parts for it??)

And by the way, Ford apparently calls it an "encoder motor".

As of now, I'm going to keep searching salvage yards, hopefully one can be found relatively close to me.

I still have to test the motor tonight, and verify that manually shifting the transfer case to 2H will indeed make it work. If I can't get it into 2H manually, this whole post may be useless, and I'll be shopping for a whole new assembly.

Opinions, suggestions, tips, recommendations are welcome!

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Anime187]

did u take the motor off to make sure its in 4h? which is also auto 2 with trac control.

 

[drdoom]

Hey Tim, I have the same vehicle, and at first I thought the shift motor was bad...it was not, now I have two of them. The problem was caused by some worn small parts in the transfer case. Let me know if I can help.

Mike

 

[tsfelt]

Thanks Mike,

I removed the shift motor, verified it works with it plugged in but not attached to the xfer case, then tried manually shifting into Auto (2hi), and still nothing. Were you able to have the transfer case repaired? I'm thinking of yanking it out and taking it down to a local Off-Road shop to get their opinion.

Tim

 

[drdoom]

Tim, I did the repair myself, using the excellent 4405 rebuild diary here on this site. First thing I did was drain the t-case fluid: it was filled with white plastic chunks. This let me know about what the problem was, worn shift fork bushings. It was a pretty easy rebuild.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182071
Mike