4wd Lights

Hey guys! I am new to the forum and decided to start off with an interesting problem. I went to use the 4wd on my truck the other day and all I got was some flashing 4wd lights that now won't go away.

I put the truck in some dirt to make sure the front wheels weren't spinning and have been driving it. I put the truck up on my lift to take a look at the rear actuator and found that when the truck is in drive it is transferring power through the transfer case to the front axle but, the front wheels do not spin.

Would this indicate that the transfer case is actually in 4wd and the front differential has not locked the front axles into the system? How can the TC be in 4wd but not the front differential?

 

Sounds like a classic stuck fromt diff actuator to me. Try tapping it with a hammer

 

I gave that a shot with a heavy brass hammer, no luck. The truck won't un-select the 4wd from the TC either, I have been driving like this a couple thousand miles lol I bought a new TC with the TC actuator off of eBay for 250 dollars. I was wondering if maybe one of the switches on the actuator is no good, its a northeastern truck so new parts are always the easiest route.

 

the front actuator has limit switches inside it that if not tripped will not let the case shift out. but there is a slim chance the case doesnt know its in 4wd either.

 

Is it possible to pull apart the front actuator to clean it just like the rear one? Or would buying a new actuator be my only option...

 

im sure someone has pulled them apart. but i have not nor know anyone that has

 

I've been down this road, my man... You can try to remove the plastic cover to see the position of the contacts. You said the transfer case is engaging the front drive shaft?
If thats the case, it's possible that the 2 actuators are out of sync with each other and the controller. You can remove the actuator from the front diff and see what position the AAD is in. The fork on the actuator moves a lock ring to the drivers side to engage the front differential. You can see what position the actuator is stuck in when you have 4hi selected.
Hope that makes sense.

 

Yeah it looks like the TC is engaged in 4 HI but the front differential is not locked in. When the truck is up on my lift and you put it in drive the TC is transfering power to the front driveshaft. I also can't seem to get the TC out of 4 HI, it looks like this may be some sort of fail safe as empty_lord suggested that is the front actuator is not satisfied then it will lock the TC in whatever state it is in and you can't get it out

 

Kill power, manually move everything into the 4hi position and then turn the key. This will entail removing the plastic covers on the actuators and very gingerly spinning the worm gear to rotate the actuator to the desired position.
Once you have the system in 4hi, and power it up, theoretically it should tell you you're in 4hi, theoretically....

 

So it has been a while since I started this thread but figured I would give some closure on it! It turned out to be be the actuator on the transfer case being now good. I swapped out the actuator with a good used unit and boom 4wd works again!

 

Damn, same one you tried whacking with a hammer?

 

Brass hammers are cushy.

In this case it sounds like the problem preexisted the whacks.

 

Damn bugs whacked him, Johnny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5dRcksyQ2w

 

Yeah, it was pretty seized up. The cover was cracked so I suspect water kept getting in and eventually just caused it to seize after it hadn’t been used in a few months