Brown Wire Mod for Control-Track

[gijoecam]

There shouldn;t be any mileage gains.... all you're doing is stopping the transfer case from locking. The BW mod doesn't stop anything from rotating (or, in the case fo the front axles, being rotated).

Mileage should remain unchanged.

-Joe

 

[gtrz]

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

Wow, I'm lost now..............

 

[Lee S.]

Wow, I'm lost now..............

Lost about what???

Get a little more specific and we will try and help.

 

[gtrz]

I think he's in the same boat as me thinkin' we were getting better
mileage out of this. Now, I don't know exactly how or where, but I came away thinking better mileage somehow out of all these bw discussions..

 

[Lee S.]

Gas mileage gains will be none or very small. With control trac everything up front is connected. There are no hubs that can be disconnected. When the X is in motion the wheels spin the axles which in turn spin the drive shaft. The front wheels never actually free spin as they would if you had hubs which could be unlocked. When in Auto mode the BW mod only stops the transfer case from pulsing power to the front driveshaft and axles when wheel spin is detected. The argument could be made that stopping this 'pulsing' may improve gas mileage but it would hardly be noticeable.

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

Guess I'll have to take the front wheels off for better mpg....... I'm gonna pull the plug on the case, to see if it is trashed.

I suppose nobody makes locking hubs ? (for these)

 

[gijoecam]

Guess I'll have to take the front wheels off for better mpg....... I'm gonna pull the plug on the case, to see if it is trashed.

I suppose nobody makes locking hubs ? (for these)

Not exactly... There has been some discussion recently about that..... IIRC, there is a manual hub conversion available for the IFS Rangers that used the vacuum-actuated hubs. In theory, (and to my knowledge nobody has tried it on an Explorer yet)you should be able to take the automatic hub assembly off a Ranger, fit it to an Explorer, then convert it to manual hubs. Disconnecting the front hubs would, in theory, release the front drivetrain from being driven by the front wheels.

Now, that being said, given the design of the ControlTrac transfer case, there is a possibility that the front driveshaft may still want to turn due to the transfer case clutch coil's design. If everything is operating normally, there should be very little driveshaft speed difference between the front and rear driveshaft. I don't believe the t-case was ever designed to see a stationary front driveshaft while the rear D/S is rotating at speed.

Some people with the BW mod have attempted running their trucks on a rear wheel dyno, and at least one person found that above a relatively high rate of speed, the front wheels want to start spinning. I suspect it could be the fluid shearing between the components of the transfer case clutch, transmitting some power to the front wheels.

So, that being said, I'm not sure how much benefit there would be for the average daily driver if you swapped out the manual hubs.

-Joe

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

I unplugged the T-case, the rears actually spin now. Both tires always spin so it must have a decent posi in it from the factory.

I still can't figure out why the mod didn't work. With the wire cut, the front is still locked, funky.

Thanks for the tips......Buzz

 

[gijoecam]

Well, there's two possibilities: Either you spliced the switch in on the wrong wire, or the switch isn't breaking the connection.

Try this: Plug the transfer case in, engage low range, and unplug the TOD relay. If you have 4wd, the switch isn't working.

-Joe

edit: I just realized that, after looking at my own pictures, I may have given some bad info.... I mis-typed some info regarding this pic:

The wire from the right comes from the TOD relay, the wire from the BOTTOM is from the TCS relay and the wire on the TOP LEFT is the one that runs to the T-Case clutch. The TOP LEFT wire above the splice is the one you want to cut and install the switch in.

Sorry for the confusion... I should wake up before posting important information LOL!

-Joe

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

Now ya tell me.............Right now that brown wire is cut in half, period.

 

[gijoecam]

Now ya tell me.............Right now that brown wire is cut in half, period.

Which brown wire? There's three.

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

I think I snipped just below the splice.

 

[gijoecam]

That would explain it.... You need the one above and to the left of the splice. The one down below the splice is coming up from the Transfer Case Shift relay. If you splice the switch in there, apparently the Torque On Demand relay is still active even in 4wd, so it's the TOD relay that's engaging the transfer case.

You need to clip the one up and to the left of the three, somewhere between the splice and the transfer case. What you can do is instead of trying to pull the ends off the existing cut, simply splice a pair of connectors on the wires and plug them back together. It's tight up in there....

-Joe

 

[BuzzisCrazy2]

Aight..........I'll try it this weekend.

Thank ya, Thank ya very much.............

 

[gijoecam]

I was stalking Bambi last week.... any luck?

-Joe

 

[BogFather]

ok so is this where to splice into the BW behind the dash, in behind the air vent ??

 

[gijoecam]

Yes.

 

[revd12]

to be specific about the brown wire mod,which borg warner transfer cases is it that can be modified ? I have the 4405.

 

[revd12]

tried the modification under the drivers seat didnt work