96 sport control trac no awd or 4low all lights/relays working

[quisman]

Hey all, new guy here and i've been searching for a few hours and have found some great info. It appears as with my model year and 44-05 it most likely isn't the shift motor. But I do have a very interesting situation here that may make me think it is possibly. I just aquired this explorer for -10 bucks so it's really worth fixing to me. undercarriage and components are in amazing shape or so they look. All wiring looks intact and connectors still have dielectric in them.

Here are my symptoms:
X starts and passes 4x4 diagnostic
Aside from a nasty shake i get once in a while(haven't investigated yet)
switch from 2hi to 4auto and relay clicks light turns on
Try to move.....rears spin no fronts....I can see the volt meter taking a voltage drop about everytime I would expect the fronts to engage.

Pop to neutral, click to 4 low, relay clicks, 4 low light on. sometimes a clunk sometimes not. Rears are definitely in low range but nothing up front. Move from reverse to D or any other gear. Good size voltage drop on the meter.
Looks like the module is trying to do its job but something electro-mech is saying...uhhh how bout no. Safe assumption ?

I was hoping/thinking w/ this much data supplied I may have someone here w/ a direct answer before I rip into this new lady. Previous owner said he would get the 4WD and 4Low lights to blink going down the road making me think it could be the selection motor, but I haven't seen it blink yet.

Any thoughts or posts I may not have seen.

Oh, a couple things I dont' think are related but you never know w/ electronics. ABS works fine, no lights. But airbag light comes on and slow blinks a number of times then remains on solid. My guess is it failed to find a feedback from a bag is all and not related.

Thanks guys/gals

 

[quisman]

More detail, Just got her up into the air and the front shaft does not turn by hand so I'd say it's safe to say the transfer case is working?? WHen I turn the drivers side wheel by hand fast or slow I cannot get any movement out of the passenger side. When I move the passenger side I do get opposing movement from the drivers side. When I turn the front shaft by hand both tires rotate the same way. CRYKIE !!
Oh oh oh, at least some good news.... I found a remote starter hidden up inside the dash too hopefully I can score a fob for it somewhere.

 

[96eb96]

More detail, Just got her up into the air and the front shaft does not turn by hand so I'd say it's safe to say the transfer case is working?? WHen I turn the drivers side wheel by hand fast or slow I cannot get any movement out of the passenger side. When I move the passenger side I do get opposing movement from the drivers side. When I turn the front shaft by hand both tires rotate the same way. CRYKIE !!
Oh oh oh, at least some good news.... I found a remote starter hidden up inside the dash too hopefully I can score a fob for it somewhere.

You may have an issue with the front axle vacuum disconnect unit. Look on the passenger side of the front axle, there are some vac lines.

 

[corkey]

this happened to another member of this board,, he had no 4x4 but it seemed like it worked a few times, but he was not sure,, and than after some searching through a bunch of posts and threads, he went out and looked at the front axle disconnect vacuum lines,, they were both not attached,, , he plugged them in , and there it was , working 4x4,,
now i am not saying that this is the absolute answer , but it is a possibility ,,

 

[quisman]

cool cool thanks guys...unfortunately I forgot to mention I did trace those out. well to the pod at least. I'll have to look further and see if I can hear some leaking while it's running.
What I did notice was that the cylinder the lines plug into on the axle was able to shift a 1/4 inch each way....wasn't sure if this was a gasketed/o-ring setup that could move or a threaded setup.
If I remember it's a total of 2 plugs? 2 whites into one and a red line I believe it comes from the pod...sorry this is all off memory. It runs like a champ so I didn't figure vacuum but wasn't sure if it would affect performance anyway. Why are there mutiple lines anyway? I figured one would do the job.
My biggest curiousity is why the voltmeter spikes low and back to normal when in 4low.

 

[gmanpaint]

Black & white vac line to front diff. Yes that part should rotate slightly. Forwards, and back. Check vac lines all the way up, and make sure wire harness is tight as well on diff. Make sure the ABS is working correctly, no ABS=no 4x4. also check the red vac lines coming from ball on the pass fender liner under air box. Check and clean T/C connector. All simple things to do. If a hub is out, you wont get 4x4 either. You will get low range, but only to rears. I did all of these when I lost my 4x4. It was a vac source that fouled mine up. Best of luck!

 

[quisman]

gman, awesome info....yeah I just climbed under it and found the black and white vac tubes. I have vac draw on one and not the other. I don't have my haynes manual here at the house so i'm not sure of the schematic.
Yeah, I do have 4low in the rear.
So w/ everything so far, perhaps I have a hub issue?? It's a little icey here still on my driveway so I mashed the breaks and managed to get some abs activity.
I'm dying to take it on the road and try it out to troubleshoot but my driveway is a nasty 800 feet of snow and ice....can't get back up it. lol

So....how does the hub come into play on these awds? I figured it was similar to a front wheel drive car where it's just a spline input from the cv and thats that,
and the 4wheel auto/ is controlled by the TC. What i'm asking is, how could the hub be screwing my 4wheel is it like the old manual hubs but now vac/electronic?

 

[gmanpaint]

OK, you have 4x4 not AWD. The front diffs are different. AWD does not have a selector. It is full time AWD.

If one hub is out you will not have your front diff work at all. Read these threads....
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203441

read post # 7
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202430&highlight=hubs

 

[quisman]

really? okay...it can be confusing based on the selector 2WD/4x4 auto/4WD Low makes me always call 4x4 auto AWD based on habit. I remember my 98 XL had the same selector and you could hear 4x coming in and out so I considered that to be awd as opposed to 4hi or full time 4x4.

I figured out the white line is for 2wd which holds vacuum in 2wd and the black is for 4 which also holds vacuum when in 4. The solenoids near the pass headlight assembly must be doing their job.

The thing I still can't get over is the voltage drop when I go to D/2/1/R in either 4auto or 4low. Oh I also managed to get enough speed going and put it into 4auto from 2wd and got the 6 blinks of 4wd and 4low. So there's definitely something electro-mech going on too. But when I parked, returned it to 2wd and back to 4auto, it went in...well so the light said anyway. oh, got some good hill speed on the ice too and yeah abs is fully active.

Maybe that airbag light is a sign of something being shorted to ground somewhere w/ the 4wd system....possibly but unlikely.
Thoughts ? I'll check those posts out. Thanks again.

 

[quisman]

Update: Just climbed under it and the front shaft spins nice and free. Fired it up and put it in 4auto and the shaft was locked. Looks like everything is doing it's job. So it's either in the pumpkin or hubs possibly ??

 

[96eb96]

Update: Just climbed under it and the front shaft spins nice and free. Fired it up and put it in 4auto and the shaft was locked. Looks like everything is doing it's job. So it's either in the pumpkin or hubs possibly ??

Its not the hubs, as said before they are simple hubs that could be on a FWD car.

I would play with that vac disconnect. I believe there are screws and you can off the cover (I've never done so though).

 

[gijoecam]

More detail, Just got her up into the air and the front shaft does not turn by hand so I'd say it's safe to say the transfer case is working?? WHen I turn the drivers side wheel by hand fast or slow I cannot get any movement out of the passenger side. When I move the passenger side I do get opposing movement from the drivers side. When I turn the front shaft by hand both tires rotate the same way. CRYKIE !!
Oh oh oh, at least some good news.... I found a remote starter hidden up inside the dash too hopefully I can score a fob for it somewhere.

You may have an issue with the front axle vacuum disconnect unit. Look on the passenger side of the front axle, there are some vac lines.

Its not the hubs, as said before they are simple hubs that could be on a FWD car.

I would play with that vac disconnect. I believe there are screws and you can off the cover (I've never done so though).

Everything is spot on here... It's an issue with the center axle disconnect on teh front axle. It essentially breaks the passenger side axle shaft in 2wd mode. They did away with it for the '97 model year. If you wanted to, the easiest fix would be to swap out the front axle for a 97-01 live front axle, eliminating any problem with the CAD.

But I digress... If you're getting the proper alternating vacuum (one to lock, one to unlock the CAD), you need to check the CAD itself... see if you manually apply vacuum to one port or the other, see if you can get the front axle to lock in. It could simply be a sticky vacuum motor, it the linkage could be bad, or the lockup collar that it moves could be bad too... Either way, parts should be pretty readily available.

Good luck!

 

[quisman]

Awesome info everyone, I'll have to get it up jacks and start F'n with it.
With past vehicle experience I was wondering how it could possibly be the hubs.
I'm thinking in the mean time I will pull that vac assembly appart and check it followed by the front pumpkin and see what turns up in there.

I think my TC motor is a little sketchy but works most of the time so i'm not concerned w/ that at the moment. I'll keep you posted and by all means if someone has more ideas hit me up.

 

[gijoecam]

I think my TC motor is a little sketchy but works most of the time so i'm not concerned w/ that at the moment. I'll keep you posted and by all means if someone has more ideas hit me up.

What makes you think that? Keep in mind that the transfer case shift motor on a second-gen is strictly responsible for range selection. Range selection and transfer case lockup are independent of each other and use two different systems for accomplishing their missions. Shift motor failures on a second gen are notoriously few and far between. Many people mistakenly believe that the shift motor is the root cause of all their 4wd problems thanks to the poor reputation they had when attached to the 13-54 t-case in the first-gen Explorers and Rangers. However, in an Explorer, the system is completely different, and the shift motor plays a very different role.

 

[quisman]

crap, yeah my bad.....I was thinking that because I finally got it to blink at me going at a good speed and shifting on the fly to 4auto. Until I get that front pumkin pulled i'll keep my thoughts to the front axle.
Aside from that, is it safe to assume that major voltage drop is not a good thing when in 4auto or 4low when shifting gears ? It's quite a current draw, the lights on the dash and the 4x indicators dim pretty good. I'll throw my meter on the batter tonight and get a low peak voltage drop for a better idea.

 

[gijoecam]

The blinking from the 4wd system was likely because the rear wheels were turning much faster than the fronts which the system took as slippage. Even theough the system is malfunctioning, it's still trying to make the wheel speeds match, so after a period of time where they system's trying (and failing) to get the front and rear wheels turning the same speed, it times-out, stores an error code, and gives up trying to make the 4wd work.

 

[quisman]

Great news on the 4x lights.....makes perfect sense to me.
I think i'm gonna try to get it up in the air tonight and focus on the vacuum actuator.
Assuming it's clipped in somehow since it moves freely. I'm guessing there's a chance for oxidization to takeover in there ?
This is me dreaming of a simple fix since everything else seems fine.

So, looks like I can get away with removing the part that covers the axle and
i'll have free range to get the clip holding the actuator off. Am I dreaming or is
that easy ?

 

[quisman]

To others view this posts, feel free to "hijack" with some similar problems and hopefully together we can fix em all up. There's a F-Ton of great info just in this thread and when we get her fixed i'll be sure to edit my first post with everything I did to solve any problems...unless of course I end up running it over w/ my backhoe

 

[gijoecam]

Admittedly I've never had one apart myself, but from what I can tell from the exploded diagram, the motor has a rod that slides in and out parallel to the axle shaft. On that rod is a fork that is supposed to slide the lockup collar back and forth inside the axle housing. They can and do get sticky from time to time. I'd start with a liberal application of WD40 on anything that's supposed to move.

Now, if you get the cover off and it looks like you need to go deeper, it appears that the housing is held on with four bolts, and it *should* pop off the side of the housing. It would appear that the motor and fork should come off as an assembly, but again, don't quote me on that.

It also appears that there are a couple little pads on the end of the shift fork, and that could be part of the problem... if those pads are damaged or missing, that could cause it not to lock. The motor itself could be fine, but if there's no connection between the fork and the collar, well, we all know what that causes.



Good luck!

 

[quisman]

http://mooktank.com/?p=239

Interesting possibility
I know the LEVER in my old F150 never broke