99 Ford Explorer automatic 4wd does not seem to fully engage.

[Khelendrose]

The automatic 4wd tried to activate as I tore out of a parking lot. Well it never fully engaged I guess and now it periodically tries to engage as I drive which cause the whole truck to vibrate and it makes a god's awful noise like its grinding while turning. I tried turning on the 4high and turning it back off but it got worse. I read somewhere that if you disconnected the transfer miter it would fix it but it is still doing it. PLEASE HELP!!!!

 

[Flash]

You have to tell us which engine and transmission you have.

 

[Khelendrose]

It's a 4.0 L engine I am not sure of the trans but I was underneath it this morning and it has a bore transfer case

 

[XLTrunner]

You've got a Borg Warner 4405 transfer case and sounds like you may very well have done some internal damage to it.

Here's a link to a past thread that pretty thoroughly describes how it works to maybe give a clue as to what is wrong. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is to open it up.


http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182071


I went thru a transfer case rebuild about this same time last year. Transfer case would jump into 4WD on it's own. They found burnt clutch discs, scorch marks where the brown wire attached to the electro-magnate and one of the three ramp balls described in that thread was broken in half. Keep in mind I had owned my 150K miles '98 XLT for the previous three years and put 40K miles on it without ever touching the dash 4WD selector switch. Truck had been in Phoenix it's entire life prior...so, it's not like that transfer case was abused.

 

[Khelendrose]

Got it out of 4wd

 

[XLTrunner]

Hopefully, you dodged a bullet. I wouldn't recommend tearing 'em up in that truck in the future, though.