98 Ranger 4.0, 4wd not acting right.

[speedfreak87]

From another forum I posted on the other day.

98 Ranger, 4.0l, auto trans, manual hubs (yay) xlt etc.

Today it decided to snow before I could test out the 4wd to make sure it works, and sure enough, it's not... Anyway, not sure wtf it is as I'm limited knowledge with 4wd. I'll start here, This past spring when everything was thawing out, i got the blinking 4hi/4lo lights, came to this wonder site and found that is caused by a faulty shift motor. So I ordered one from rockauto but by the time it got to me, the lights stopped blinking.. Went to a little mud hole just to see, and sure enough, everything worked fine. being I live in NJ, and there is really no place to use my 4wd (and my mud hole got shut down) I haven't use 4wd all summer. so I never replaced the motor. Today, with the snow I decided I wanted to drive around, well I damn near got stuck! knowing that is not how my ranger acts in the snow, I clicked 4hi, sounded like everything was fine, but it was still slipping and sliding.. ( I used 4wd a lot last winter with NO issues at all) Went to a local school parking lot, and messed around a little bit, put it in 4lo and it clicked, there was some grinding when it would go into gear, but then nothing. then it started going back and forth between 4hi/4lo.. SO I decided it was best I go home and park it before I ended up stuck someplace. Now I know I never put the new motor in and before I do it, is there ANYTHING else it could be? I'm hoping the motor does the trick but if it doesn't, I need to fix it. I searched the forum and didn't find anything to answer my question. oh and yes, the hubs were locked.



It's 6:30pm and I just went out to check it again, thinking maybe I'm losing my mind, it sounds like the motor is trying to engage the t-case, but it's just not going in. Could the motor be to weak to engage it?

I went to work yesterday, got into the underground parking and locked up the hubs, switched into 4hi, truck didn't seem to act any different, the switched to 4lo, got all the clicking from inside the cab, but heard nothing from the t-case. wen to turn and the truck bucked a little.. hmm.. dry+4lo+turn= bucking? only when I turned to the left. turn to the right it was normal. In the snow, nothing was happening. at one point it felt like 4wd was engaged as the truck wasn't fish tailing, but then it would fish tail.. I know the tcase doesn't make a lot of noise when it goes into gear, but it should make SOME noise, no? Now when I put it into 4hi last night, and this morning, and drove down the street, I could hear a grinding sound, not like a gear trying to engage, but a metal on metal (think two metal plates rubbing together) while in motion, stop the truck and the noise stops.

I got the 6 blinks or whatever it is in the spring when everything was thawing out, checked it, and it was the t-case motor, no big deal, bought a new one and before I got to put it in, the lights went out and the 4wd worked, used it twice after that with no issue, thinking maybe the problem returned with the motor, I replaced it this morning with the new one. The grinding that I'm hearing sounds like its coming from the pass front. kind of like when you get a rock stuck in your rotors type of sound.

When I got to work today I had my co worker see if he could see the axles spinning after I locked the hubs. He couldn't tell but it's not a big deal. Put it in 4h, and you can hear the motor activate, but get nothing. so I put it in 4lo and same thing, hear the motor, well I did it a couple of times and got nothing, so then in 4lo, ,I floored it. heard a rather loud bang, and then the 4wd seemed have been working, went in and out.. took it out of 4wd, floord it and the rear tires spun, put it in 4lo floored it and the truck lunged, with no spinning, it acted as though it was in 4wd.. took it to the back gravel lot and tested again, everything worked, even shifting into 4hi while moving (5mph), it went into 4wd, seems a little delayed, but it went in and out with no issues.. could the tcase just have been frozen???

I'm not sure wtf is going on.. I can hear the motor engage, but I do not hear the t-case engage, but it does go into 4wd (seems delayed). t-case taking a ****? or something else... I'm trying to figure things out and I know NOTHING about 4wd stuff, it's my first truck.

 

[RangerX]

Does your 98 have a 1354 T-case? You could pull the old shift motor off and shift by hand if it gets down to that.
But, I would install the ne one and take it from there. Odds are, that's the problem. Not much else goes out on these cases.

You say you have manual hubs, does that mean you have the AVM hubs?

 

[speedfreak87]

Does your 98 have a 1354 T-case? You could pull the old shift motor off and shift by hand if it gets down to that.
But, I would install the ne one and take it from there. Odds are, that's the problem. Not much else goes out on these cases.

You say you have manual hubs, does that mean you have the AVM hubs?

I'm pretty sure it's the 1354, I already changed out the motor, got the same results. The went to work and floored it in 4lo, heard a loud bang and it seemed to be working after that. One thing is I hear the motor move, but don't hear the tcase engage, but it does engage..

And yes, the AVM/Rugged ridge hubs. I'll pop them out this weekend clean and reoil them.

 

[speedfreak87]

I think I found the issue.. I put the truck up on stands, grabbed the front drives shaft and it spun freely as it should have, key on engine off, put it in 4h and the drive shaft didn't move just like it was suppose to do, so I was able to rule out the t-case and it had the new t-case motor so all that stuff was working. Next thing to do was to service the AVM/Rugged ridge manual hubs. Pulled the drivers side off and it was ok, little dry, but clean.. went over to the pass side and tried pulling that, it gave me some resistance, not good.. finally got it off and this is what I found..
axle

AVM hub..

Bone dry with what looks like dirt, but is more the likely rust. interesting.. cleaned everything out, oiled it up put it back together, and nothing.. it goes into lock, but doesn't do anything.. crap.. popped it back off and put the driver side hub on the pass side, worked fine, locked, spun the axle etc.. that rules out the axle.. so it's the hub. done, wasted.. needs replacement. lol! I'll put some new ones in and see if there is anything else wrong with the system, which there doesn't seem to be..

 

[RangerX]

Bummer. But at least you found the problem.

 

[speedfreak87]

Hopefully found the issue.. lol! Everything seems to be working like it should (with the exception of this) so once the new ones get here we shall see. I just ordered a new set from tellico4x4, lets see how fast they get here.