Help…. Completely lost on this…. Transmission or Transfer Case

[410Fortune]

Those are the two speed sensors for the control trac awd portion of your t case
To use a new shift motor you will have to add the speed sensor pins into the shift motor connector

With the needle pointed to ”N” the truck should not move. The t case should be in neutral and no engagement is happening between the input and output
I suggest it is actually not in neutral but still stuck in gear

The truck must be in park or neutral with your foot in the brake before the transfer case will shift into or out of low range

Something is fishy
Those old t cases fail all the time in fact it is rare to still have a good working 96-97 control trac case

 

[410Fortune]

How to: - The Borg Warner 4405 Transfer Case Rebuild Diary

I am going to try and put this entire thread together much as I did the 4R70W Diary, so those just needing basic info do not have to sift through a lot of chatter throughout the thread. I will create and link another comment thread for those comments - which is here...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[TBorchardt]

Those are the two speed sensors for the control trac awd portion of your t case
To use a new shift motor you will have to add the speed sensor pins into the shift motor connector

With the needle pointed to ”N” the truck should not move. The t case should be in neutral and no engagement is happening between the input and output
I suggest it is actually not in neutral but still stuck in gear

The truck must be in park or neutral with your foot in the brake before the transfer case will shift into or out of low range

Something is fishy
Those old t cases fail all the time in fact it is rare to still have a good working 96-97 control trac case

The car is a 99. So am I basically getting to where I should find a different transfer case or rebuild this one??

 

[Pete Deering]

Okay got some time again today to work on the explorer a bit.

Put the new body ground cables on.

I did drain the fluid to inspect. Wanted to change the fluid anyway and hadn’t gotten to it. I do not see any sign of Teflon pieces in it. The fluid was dark but didn’t smell burnt or anything.

I took my test light under the car with key on and the selector in the dash to high range. Light on the dash came on and I probed the tc motor plug. On the picture I attached, the white lines I marked on the pin holes indicates an “on” test light. The one entire side of the plug is a pulsing test light.

I then came back out from under the car and put the selector into low range. The light in the dash remained on for high range and the low range never light up. (I put all new bulbs in the dash the other day now so I know all of the indicators should work if they get signal)

Now I should mention the other day when I took the tc motor off and moved the tc shaft to the “N”, I took the car for a drive down the block. It is still doing the same thing as when I originally posted.

What’s my next move?

" I then came back out from under the car and put the selector into low range. The light in the dash remained on for high range and the low range never light up."
I order too shift too 4L , you have too had your foot on the brake petal, white in neutral.

 

[410Fortune]

There are tons of good used t cases for. 98-01 control trac explorers out there it is the 96/97 version that is hard to get your hands on

 

[TBorchardt]

Messing around today again.

Manually put the transfer case into the high range. Car drove as it should. No lights, shift points were correct.

So, I’m agreeing with the “transfer case wasn’t actually in neutral but stuck in gear”.

A new tc motor will be here in the morning. Hoping to get it put in before we leave for weekend plans we have. Then we will see what it does.

Still can’t get the 4x4 low light to come on even with the vehicle in neutral and foot on the brake. Is there a sensor inside the tc that activates when the tc is actually in low range? So the fact that I had the tc rod in neutral and now high, it won’t activate since there is no motor to turn the rod?

 

[C420sailor]

I think the prox switches for the light are in the shift motor? I’m only 10% sure on that one

 

[410Fortune]

Yes they are
The only way you get a low range light is if the t case motor actually switches to low range position and the ( bulb is not burned out)

Stopped,
Foot on brake
Truck in neutral (not park)
Shift into low

If it does not shift then it’s likely your shift motor needs to be rebuilt or replaced, this happens all the time as many many many people never use low range so it becomes a dead spot in the shift motor

 

[TBorchardt]

I put the new tc shift motor in and everything works as it should car drives fine with no lights or issues.

Thank you everyone for the advice to narrow down the issue with the strange behavior from the car.

 

[EB4X]

I put the new tc shift motor in and everything works as it should car drives fine with no lights or issues.

Thank you everyone for the advice to narrow down the issue with the strange behavior from the car.

AWESOME! /\