awd on 03 mountaineer not working

[grodjerry]

so i hope u guys can help me... i have a 2003 awd mercury mountaineer, this morning while taking my kids to school i noticed i was having a very hard time in the snow and came to find out that my front wheels are not trying to turn. i am hearing a bit of a grinding noise when i step on gas but no power is going to the front, ive owned this vehicle for the last 7 years and havent had this problem yet and it is my daily driver... please help

 

[imp]

so i hope u guys can help me... i have a 2003 awd mercury mountaineer, this morning while taking my kids to school i noticed i was having a very hard time in the snow and came to find out that my front wheels are not trying to turn. i am hearing a bit of a grinding noise when i step on gas but no power is going to the front, ive owned this vehicle for the last 7 years and havent had this problem yet and it is my daily driver... please help

@grodjerry
The front wheels are driven by a "viscous clutch", actually similar to a torque converter, located in the Transfer Case. They do not give trouble very frequently. It sounds as though yours has become defective, possibly due to loss of the fluid within it, or mechanical breakage. The latter might be more likely, because of the noise. Continuing to drive with Transfer Case noise due to broken parts is likely to send it away forever.

If you are familiar with removing parts of the drivetrain, but not disassembling them, it's possible you may find a used Transfer Case in a junkyard. Best is to see whether it's origin was a wrecked vehicle. Be certain if you go that way that an AWD case is being sold, not one of the conventional ones. Having your old unit repaired will likely be pretty expensive. imp