Stuck in 4 wheel drive

[Cindee]

Heeeelp...


I have a 4.0 XLT, and its stuck in 4 wheel. It has been shifting rough for a couple of weeks (in 2 wheel drive), and my son figured it needed alittle 4 wheeling. Now it wont disengage. He says its the shift module. Okay, so looking through the posts here, someone was talking about a "brown wire", can I use this tech tip to disengage my 4 wheel without going to go get a whole new module??? Or is there another problem?

 

[mynameisaric]

works on my truck. when i was stuck in 4-lo, i hit the brown wire switch and i at least got it into 2wd to limp it home. check your fuses, doesnt really sound like a fuse problem, but it couldnt hurt to check. but as for the brown wire mod, it should work because it kills the power to the electromagnetic clutches in the t-case, and with no power, they cant engage/stay engaged. good luck.

 

[Lazzman]

Unfortunately for you it sounds like what happend to me. Never had my 98 X in four low before so I put it in four low and it would not come out. Towed to dealer, dealer said it needed a new motor, cost me $850, had the option to just go 2 wheel but I like the four wheel drive.

 

[IZwack]

wow 850 for a new shift motor? i guess that included labor.

anyways, if its the shift motor thats going out of whack, u can easily change it in about than 10-20 minutes. the shift motor is held in by one giant electrical connector, and four 10mm bolts (sometimes one is left out - the one at the very back of the motor so it might be 3).

the only real difficulty is that it might get tight under there as the gas tank is very close to the motor, and u also have to make sure the shift motor is ligned up with the shifting rod. the rod is a triangle, more like an arrow really because its longer on two sides - just make sure the rod "arrow" lines up with the shift motor's receiving hole "arrow". some people also put RTV to ensure there are no leaks.

 

[gijoecam]

Indeed, for a quick fix, simply un-plug the connector with the brown wire in it. (Not necessarily the shift motor). That will cut power to the clutch and (if everything else is working properly inside the t-case) disengage the transfer case.

If it doesn't work, you've got bigger problems....

-Joe

 

[seanthenerd]

OK, just to make sure...there is a "trick" with 4-lo. Once you engage 4-lo it will require you to put the trucks transmission in neutral "N" before you can shift back into 4-hi or 2wd/Auto.

I know you probably already know this, but I have had a few X owners cry to me that after they had thier x in 4wd they could not get it out, they were new to 4x4's and did not realize that some require the vehicles transmission to be in "N".

If this is not the case, I had another friend who had a similar problem and it turned out to be a vacuum tube that the switch uses to tell the motor to lock or unlock. It was in a Blazer so I don't know if the X uses vac tubes for the T-case or not.

Hope this helps some.

 

[gijoecam]

Blazers are a completely different beast.... notorious for that problem, but completely different systems.

-Joe

 

[TPLYNCH]

Sometimes just simply disconnecting the battery for a while to reset the computer will be enough to get it out of 4 low.

 

[Zimm]

Indeed, for a quick fix, simply un-plug the connector with the brown wire in it. (Not necessarily the shift motor). That will cut power to the clutch and (if everything else is working properly inside the t-case) disengage the transfer case.

If it doesn't work, you've got bigger problems....

-Joe

I heard about the brown wire mod and that it cuts the power to the clutch to take it out of 4wd. I really didn't want to do all that. Why not just unplug the connector! Great idea! I now have 2 wd and can drive it if need be plus I know other things are working properly. Now I just need to find the culprit to my problem. Thanks

 

[gijoecam]

As a troubleshooting method, unplugging the connector works great. That said, it will throw a code, your 4wd lights will blink, you can't reconnect it without getting dirty, and you definately can't turn the 4wd on and off on the fly with the transfer case unplugged. If you want the ability to interrupt the power flow to the TCCC, it's worth doing the mod. If you're just trying to troubleshoot the system that you think has locked-up, just un-plug it.

-Joe