T-case or Tranny cant figure it out Help...

[umd pru]

hey guys first post,
i just bought a '97 xlt with a 4.0 and control trac. got it for 800 bucks and it needed a master cylinder and front right wheel bearings. anyways, here it is:

a few weeks after i bought it i noticed that one time coming home from work i let off the gas at about 45 miles per hour and it started making a clicking noise (think baseball card in the spokes). from a search on the site, i foudn out that it has to do with some helical cut gears in the tcase and it also means the tcase is on its way out. i didnt know that at the time and conitinued to drive it.

so a few weeks after that i went wheelin with a friend in his jeep wrangler and after he burried it up the the fenders i had to go get my Ex to pull him out. i drove it through about 12 inches of water for a few hundred feet to get to him. i got there and turned around and hooked up to pull him out but the wheels were just spinning. i let off the gas to unhoook and noticed a puff of smoke came out from underneath the truck. i knew something was bad so i went to put it in reverse to unhook from the jeep and realized there was no reverse. we rocked it enough to get unhooked and i drove it out to the road. once on the road i put it into park and hit the gas and it wanted to drive forward, i put it into reverse and same thing, i put it into neutral and same thing. once in drive it went forward too but it felt like it was running fine. ie, it shifted fine and didnt feel like anything was wrong. i got it home and washed the mud and gunk off and looked underneath but nothing looked wrong. i then tried to pull out of my friends driveway and bam! no forward and no reverse. now, in park you hit the gas and the engine bogs down and doesnt turn faster than 3k rpms. same thing in reverse and neutral. in drive, it acts like its in neutral ( just free revs up to redline). also after starting it up and putting into drive and reving the engine, you put it back into park and it sounds as if you were driving and put it into park like the park pin is trying to engage in the tranny while it is still turning. so i got underneat it thinking it was the shift motor maybe stuck between gears. sure enough, i pulled it off and found that it was stuck between 4h and N according to the stamps on the tcase. i useda pair of pliars and manually put it into h and got my forward gears back. but still no reverse.

sorry for the long explanation but i wanted to be as thorough as possible. now my question is this:

is this a tcase problem, a tranny problem, or a computer problem? i havent had it scanned yet because i cant get my hands on scan tool. not sure if the CEL is even on. he 4h,4l lights are not doing the blinking which would indicate a GEM problem. i need help on this, i am stumped. i dont know much at all about Ex drivelines or 4 wheel drive systems in general. please, any help at all would be appreciated.

pru

 

[umd pru]

bump, anyone got any ideas on this one.

 

[IZwack]

well it sounds like its both actually, the transmission and the tranfer case motor... but check the fluids first in the transmission and in the transfer case.. check to make sure they are all topped off... you might even want to pull down the transmission pan and see if you find any metal debris in there or in the transmission filter..

so you manually shifted the tranfer case into 4HI with a pair of pliers and got forward motion back but not reverse.. that hinting towards a transmission problem.. but also, the fact that you can manually shift the transfer case into a position probably means that the transfer case itself is okay but the transfer case shift motor is all out of whack..

once uve removed the pan, topped off the fluids, and found nothing, id start off by rebuilding the transfer case shift motor.. Brain did a great job on a writeup on how to do this.. after u rebuild it, check to make sure its able to shift through all of the positions (4lo, 4Hi...).. there's not much cost in rebuilding the motor so this is a good first move..

 

[umd pru]

im thinking that maybe the puff of smoke i witnessed was a short in some wiring harness under the Ex and that possibly shorted out the GEM and caused it to stop functioning correctly. When i first got it out of the mud, i tried to shut it off and start it back up hoping that the CEL light would go off. Well, when i first started it up the windshield washer pump turned on by itself and woudlnt shut off. then on the way home the engine seemed like it was skipping but then it smoothed out. now i can get under it and take the shift motor off and watch it while the switch is cycled through 4H, 4L, and Auto and the shift motor does not turn to the correct positions. sometimes it continues to "hunt" between two positions, sometimes it does not move at all, adn sometimes it moves to the correct position. this fact and the fact that the tranny will not shift into reverse, park or neutral when told to tells me something might be happening with the control module what do you guys think?

pru

 

[NYEXPLOR1]

I'm having similar problems that just started a few days ago.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135333

 

[umd pru]

yeah, i read about your problem already on another thread. cant find it now but it was something to do with some helical cut gears in your tcase disengaging when coasting because of a negative torque applied to them, as soon as you get back on the gas and give them a positive torque they re-engage and no noise anymore.

my problem is two fold. i know my tcase is on its knees right now but that doestn explain why my Ex wants to drive forward in every single gear. P, R, N, OD, 3,2,1. the tcase has nothing to do with which way the truck goes, it just ouputs what the tranny inputs but splits it up front to rear.

i cant believe that no one has any ideas on this one. im gonna flush the tranny and see what happens. im not expecting any miracles. after that im goin to the junkyard to get my hand on a GEM module and try to put that in. After that im gonna sell the Ex for cheap. the junkyard near where i live wants 500 bucks for a used 5r55E tranny and 550 for a BW 4405 tcase. im not gonna pay that much for used stuff.

does anyone out there have any other ideas???


pru

 

[NYEXPLOR1]

good luck with your problem. i'm gonna get mine checked out and hope that's all thats wrong with it.

 

[project92]

my 4405 is gone south... first signs was you put it in reverse and it pops out reverse sounds like your trying to stick it in park while moving... have fun finding a t-case they make 3 differnt control tracs and 2 differnt awd and seems mine has the hardest one to find

 

[project92]

my problem is two fold. i know my tcase is on its knees right now but that doestn explain why my Ex wants to drive forward in every single gear. P, R, N, OD, 3,2,1. the tcase has nothing to do with which way the truck goes, it just ouputs what the tranny inputs but splits it up front to rear.


pru

now I did have that problem on two other trucks.... bad news NEW tranny is in store for you... from my other two tranny's what I found out is the "clutches" "bands" are fried mine actullay welded themselves together cause nothing but a forward motion.... question if your on a hill (going up) stop the truck put it in nutreal will it roll back while running??? if not shut off the key and see if it rolls back if it does I would be 99% sure its a fried tranny

 

[umd pru]

bump

 

[project92]

well did you find out a vertict yet???

 

[umd pru]

tranny is fried, we dropped the pan and took a peek and there were all kinds of metal shavings in it. not to mention that it smelled a bit. im just gonna get a rebuilt tranny and slap it in there and see what happens.

pru