Cleaning T-Case Motor, About to Start...

[VBVA]

I think my dad and I are going to attempt this pretty soon, actually need to since I am goin to OBX in a week. I have read up about the cheap fix many times and really need to crack open the motor to see what I need to do. I printed out the instructions as a reference as well. But...

...Who has done this? How hard was it? Did it permanently fix the problem or only temporarily?

Ford wants $300 for a new actuator motor and I could prob get one from here on the forums or a junk yard for around $100, but there is no tellin how long those will last either.

Any last minute words of advice before the t-case goes under the wrench?

 

[Opera House]

I've done it a couple of times

And I think the lube in the motor bearings drying out is the number one cause. This is from a previous post.

I tested my shift motor after cleaning the brushes and a quick lube. The motor drew over 4A tripping the circuit protector on my bench power supply. Took it apart, cleaned the brushes, commutator, and lubed it a little. With the encoder gear removed, it now drew 1 1/2 amp. It seemed to strain and after several times of my reversing polarity/direction, current climbed up to about 3A. After filling the worm gear area with light oil, working it further, and polishing the motor shaft, current is now about 0.6 amps. This is now the third time I've worked on this. The other times lasting about 2-3 years. Other times I just slapped it back together. I definitely think you need to work some light oil into these bearings by running it a while off the car. The encoder gear must be removed because it has a stop on it and won't do a full rotation. So many of these may stop working because they exceed an electronic current limit.

I highly recommend that you "run the motor in", operating it in both directions with the gear/switch plate removed. I used two small courtesy lamps in parallel and those were in series with the motor. This gives about 1/2 amp at 6 volts to the motor. The motor is probably driven by a PWM in a "H" bridge so it never sees a full 12V. At 12V, the motor just turns too fast and would never be able to stop at the right gear. When I removed my motor, it was electrically connected (brushes good) but too stiff. If the motor starts easily with the lamp in series, it is sure to operate fine in the car. An easy test that doesn't require any equipment.

 

[410Fortune]

I have rebuilt/cleaned about 6 of these suckers to date.
Every single one worked like new after it was re-assembled.

It is very straight forward process.

I also used some light silicoln upon re-assembly to re-seal the case

It is helpful to MARK the location of the cover plate on the selector portion, if you look closely you will see they are adjustable and should be re-assembled in the same position it was taken apart....I use a sharpie and just draw a line.....

a little bit of grease and di-electric grease on the friction area's, sand down the bruches with an emery board, use canned air to blow out the motor case and clean everyhting up. You will be good to go save yourself $350.

The acutalor in my BII stock lasted to 180K miles.
When it went south I got a junk yard motor for $5, rebuilt it and swapped them out. Now I have my stock one rebuilt and ready to be a trail spare... If you find a ranger, Bii, Ex parting out in the paper, you can pick these suckers up for nothing.......

 

[VBVA]

You really got a junkyard one for $5? I should prob do that, buy a couple of them and rebuild and hold on to them in case i need to replace it ever again.

 

[VBVA]

I'm gonna go check a few junkyards this afternoon after I get off work. What tools do I need to get a motor off of the t-case?

 

[410Fortune]

A flat head screwdriver to help seperate the elec connector, and to pry the acutator from the T case.

I believe they are 10mm bolts on the sucker, but they could be 8mm too....

You will likely have to cut one wire.

Good luck, most junk yardxs know they are $300 from Ford and they are the first thing gone from the truck...

I have NEVER seen one in a junk yard........only on the T cases already pulled and on the shelf........

 

[VBVA]

Well, I found on Friday. I called a bunch of places to see if they had any and how much they were gonna run me. They all said $75 and they had them sitting out. I said screw it, I am goin to U Wrench It and payin the $1 entrance fee and finding one myself. I found all the Fords and started my search. I must have crawled inder 10 Bronco II's, Rangers and Explorers and all the motors had been taken off the t-case already. I saw one more Explorer and crawled up under there and it still had the actuator motor attached! I was in such a rush that I forgot to get my instructions! I had to do it all by memory and I only messed up once. I got the harmonic balancer off the bolts that hold all the bracketry and the motor to the t-case, then my dumbass thought you had to take off the torx screws. So, I had to search the junkyard for someone who had some. Found a guy, got them loosened, took off the motor and got out of there. DIdn't realize til I got home that I didn't need to loosen them and probably shouldn't have. Now, I have to buy some torx heads to get them back on. Anyone know what size they are from memory?

Well, it only cost me $13 and now I have an extra one to play around with. Only problem is that the green wire that goes to the vacuum/magnet thingy is damaged at the receptacle, so I will have to splice that from my original motor. Going to get to work on it this afternoon after work.

 

[VBVA]

Swapped the junkyard motor in, spliced all the wires together (blue and green from magnet receptacle, and brown from tranny) and got my dad to start the Ex and push the button. The thing almost jerked from my hands when the gears flipped over, a good sign, but an oh **** moment. Just bolted it up afterwards and took it to a parking lot around the corner and did some straight forward high and low range 4x4 testing on my "new" motor. Everything works fine now, so lets see how long this lasts

 

[checkedout]

everything still working good? I think I'm going to do this tomorrow. Any tips?