Lifted my Ex' and now the 4wd doesnt work!

[scramblin]

Hey,
I just got done lifting up my explorer this past weekend. 4" and 3" w/ 35's but, today i was heading down a pretty muddy trail and I got stuck, so i switch it to 4wd and it defaintly was not engaging. I had my buddy get in and stomp on the gas, the rear wheels were the only ones spinning.
What do you thinkgs wrong? I'm hoping that it is some sort of electrical problem.. Mabye when I did my Body Lift some wires came loose?? I havent had time to get up under and look for any loose wiring (because I am still on the side of this trail)

Anyone have some suggestions for me? Hopefully i'm going to disney, OK this sat. and It would be handy to have 4wd...

thanks,
kendal

 

[taxx]

what 4" lift?

May sound stupid but the front shaft is still in, right?

Any lights coming on on the dash? You may crawl under there and double check that the wire harness is connected to the t-case. If you didn't watch that it might have gotten pulled off during the BL

 

[scramblin]

...

Hey Taxxman...Its the superlift 4"...
Dead Link Removed

The lifts do some on in the dash. They take the same amount of time to turn on as they used to. I dont hear ANY movement below me, like its not even trying to engage. The driveshaft is Defiantly still in!

I did crawl under and check eveything that I could see after I got the lift finished and I did not find anything that was disconnected! It is still in the mudhole so, im not going to crawl under there right now...
I won't be able to get it out till in the morning and I'm just trying to find a list of things to check.

Thanks,
Kendal

 

[taxx]

The only thing I can think of to check is the wires going to the t-case. Other than that if the lights work and it isn't engaging might be a problem with the t-case, but usually when the t-case has problems the lights flash.

PS It looks good!

 

[scramblin]

...

Yea, I'm Hoooping that it is electric.. I have not had Any problems at all prior to the lift.

thanks,
kendal

 

[STANN]

One time randomly a service shop checked the 4WD and said that it wasnt working, and to fix that i just "tapped" the t-case a few times with a rubber mallot to make sure the gears were seated properly- its worked fine ever since.

 

[Yomie]

yeah when you get it out, check the wires on the back of the t-case. When i did my 3" BL my wires were really tight, i had to take them out of the bundle clip to give them a lil more slack.

Man i'm jealous, i wan't 4 more " lift and some 35's

 

[justin146]

In 4auto, when the truck is really bogged down, the front tires may not spin. My truck, when on 32's would do this. On 34's it made it even worse. Your 35" Claws could really bog it down. Mine was a '97 so I had the option of 4hi, whereas your '96 only has 4auto. Does 4lo work?

 

[Klowns]

Scramblin, after I had my lift put on, my 4x4 didn't work as well. I had shops look at stuff, and test, blah blah. No one could figure it out.

I'm assuming that when you turn the control trac know it says its in 4x4 right? but it isnt? well that's what mine was doing.

I had a vacuum hose had come off and that was it. I plugged it back together and it worked again. The hose is located right by the intake, by the passenger headlight. Maybe it'll help

 

[BAYDOG]

On the front Axel, passenger side ,there is a box on the axel. Going to that box you'll find a Vaccume hose and wire harness. This operates the shift fork in the front axel . Check the connections there , and clean the connectors. Also check to see that the Vaccume hose is not crimped off at all.

 

[justin146]

'95 was the only year that had a vacuum disconnect front axle. His '96 does not have this feature.

 

[Yomie]

Originally posted by justin146
'95 was the only year that had a vacuum disconnect front axle. His '96 does not have this feature.

i thought it was ALL 95-96's with a 2WD mode

97 they went to the 4auto/4hi/4lo, thus removing the vaccume

 

[scramblin]

Hey,

Thanks for all of the replies.. I will check about the vauum hose tonite.

My "Knob" has the following options:
2wd/4wdhi/4wdlo

Neither the Hi or Lo work.

Thanks,
Kendal

 

[Yomie]

Yeah check the connector on the diff as well as the Vacum plug

 

[justin146]

scramblin, you should not have a 4hi option, you are supposed to only have 4auto. Go check it and make sure. The only way you could have that is if you had the shifter on the floor.

The vaccum disconnect on the '95 was because Ford wasn't sure how well the "control trac" would hold up being used all of the time. At least that is what I was told. I am pretty sure it isn't on a '96. I could be wrong.

 

[taxx]

some 96s have the hi option without the auto.

 

[scramblin]

...

Hey,
I got the 4wd working tonite. It was the vacuum hoses that connect ontop of the diffy. I just had to cut the hoses and add a 3-4" exstension...
So, Everything work now!

Thanks for all the help and the tips.

Kendal

 

[scramblin]

...

Fixed the 4wd Last nite... (In time to go to Disney, OK today..)

The vacuum hoses that connect to the front diffy is what popped off. There wasnt any way to reroute them to get them longer, so I just use hose from my fish tank to extend the vacuum hoses.

Everything works good now... Thanks for all of the help.!

I do have another problem now..but im going to start another thread..

thanks,
kendal