2007-2020 Transfer Case Actuator

Where do you buy the micro switch? Is there a place to find it?

 

I don’t know that you can but I have some spare parts from my effort to fix mine. I can send you one. Lemme know.

 

@frodotx Just do us all a favor. Take some detail pics from all sides. So we can't try to find it. Maybe use a scale to give us dimensions of it.

It know it's work but it would help those having the issue to fix it. And you'd be the man.

 

There are couple of pics in this thread. Did you break one?

 

the micro switch in question.



This is the approximate “clocking” of the gear that worked for me. “V@pors” has a description for aligning the gear in this thread. Note the micro-switch is not in the position that has worked for other members. I don’t know why it was different for mine. I tried every other option without success. I was getting very close to taking it to a dealer…. And we know where that goes. If you’re having difficulty try “v@pors” method. What do you have to lose? I got pretty good at removing and replacing the top “hat”. Oh… and the dental floss technique of holding the gears for reinstall works very well. I don’t recall who posted that hack.

 

Your first and third photo seem to have the microswitch in two different positions. Am I looking at it wrong? I'm going on 2 years with inop 4wd

 

The photos were to identify the location of the microswitch. They were not identifying how they should calibrated.

got to post #76 by "Vapors". he describes how he aligned gears. His positioning worked!

 

I have gotten really good at installing and removing the 4hi actuator. Today I reset the spring tab alignment as stated in post 76. After selecting 4hi I heard the transfer case actuator move, then the front actuator move, then the front started beeping and after several seconds it locked in. I was turning all four tires! I tried to shift into 4Lo, and just got flashing. Feeling confused, I switched back to 4Hi and the 4Lo light continued to flash. I then tried to switch back to 2hi and still the 4Lo light flashed. I shut down the truck, started back up and now I’m unable to engage 4hi at all anymore, the front diff doesn’t beep or make any sounds at all, and now I have the ABS and Stability lights illuminated on the dash. Ugh.

 

It’s incredibly frustrating. What position was the “arm” in?. We’re you in park and 2 wheel drive when you started?

There doesn’t seem to be a “one size fits all” resolution. You’re working on the “top hat” only, correct?

 

I tried with the arm pressed fully forward, pulled fully aft, and anywhere in the middle that I could get the teeth on the gears to mesh together.

2wd in park, yes. I’m so irritated. I’m not sure how I got the front diff to respond once and not again. It’s back to how it was before not making any sounds at all.

 

It is frustrating. I was completely surprised and pleased when mine began to function.

Try this, Push the arm all the way in towards the front of vehicle. Then pull it 4 teeth back, towards the rear. Count the teeth. Calibrate it as in #76. Maybe, just maybe…..

it like a friggin’ combination lock and not knowing the combination.

 

I’m pretty sure that arm only has about 4 teeth worth of movement. I tried it in all different positions

 

I am a little uncertain of how this microswitch should function. I’ve uploaded a video testing it and I suspect this could be an issue? Seems to me that it may be broken, or else I do not understand the system and am testing incorrectly.

https://youtube.com/shorts/tQH7uKTfi4s?feature=share

Here is my current hypothesis. I think that microswitch is what that tells the ECU that the transfer case is engaged in 4Hi. I think as they gears spin around, they depress that switch as they get into position. Given that, the ECU may not be receiving the “ok” signal from the transfer case and thus not sending the engage signal to the front actuator. That would explain why my front actuator doesn’t beep or try to move at all, even though the motor tested on the bench so I know it’s not seized. I wish I had another actuator to compare tests with the multi meter, but I don’t want to remove the 4Lo actuator at risk of misaligning the gears during reassembly.

Update: Now it’s stuck in 4Lo.

Update: Cycled between 4Lo and 4Hi several times. Then selected 2Hi and the system disengaged but 4Hi light hyper flashes and prevents me from trying to shift into 4Hi again. I have unplugged the battery for a minute and still 4Hi hyperflashes.

 

Here's my question, Can you open both sides of the actuator and removed the internals, then remove the whole housing from the transfer case leaving the rods in-place ?

 

From my understanding of the system, you are correct. That switch (4wd detection switch) has to detect a change from 2nd to 4wd at the transfer case before the ADD on the front differential will actuate. If there is no continuity thru that switch, like in your video, the ecu thinks the transfer case is still in 2wd and will not actuate the front axle ADD. Once that switch is closed and has continuity the ecu thinks that the transfer case is in 4wd. At least that is the way I understand the system. When mine acted up, the resistance on that switch was super high. I cleaned the switch and that fixed mine. I think my final resistance on that switch after I cleaned it was around 1 ohm.

 

How did you clean the switch? Mine looks clean. Does it come apart somehow? It looks like if I try to disassemble the switch, I’ll break it.

 

I tried spraying the switch with contact cleaner first and that helped some. But when I was still getting high resistance I took it apart. If you look at post #59 in this thread I have a picture and talk about how I did it. The switch is delicate so you really have to be careful taking it apart and putting it back together.

I will say that when got the switch apart it did not look dirty inside. As I said in my previous post, there was a black coating on the contacts that wipes off when I cleaned it. I really wonder if it was some kind of paint and over time it starts to peel and flake and get between the two sets of contacts. I don’t know for sure. All I know is after I cleaned it I have had zero issues.

 

Weird. Ok, I’ll see what I can see when I get another chance to look at it in a week or so

 

Thanks so much for this post. It really saved my bacon. God bless.

 

Dare I say that the 4x4 in my Tundra is fixed? I put it back together and drove it to a shop because I had finally thrown in the towel on it. Monday morning the shop called me to tell me that it was working normally and asked me to come over to talk with them about it. Yesterday, I drove out there and had a conversation and they played with it some more and got it to work every time. Today, I go out there to pick it up and it’s all working fine. We suspect that the last time I put it all back together and then drove it for an hour it was able to reset the computers and now it’s good to go. I drove it out there for nothing, but at least it’s working now so that’s cool.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I got hit by a tow truck on the highway on the way home from picking up my now-working truck. Greeeeeat.

 

I have a question if I may ask.
When I removed my actuator cover the plastic lever and the black snap cover were no where to be found. I eventuallyfound them . I want to put them back in there proper place
What spring are u talking about. Inside the microswitch?

 

If you go up to post #66 there is a picture of a broken switch arm with the "spring" contact handing on the back on the plastic arm. Post #95 has a good picture of the orientation of the arm when you are putting it back together. The arm has a small pivot nub that rests in a recess in the black switch top. You can see that in post #95 too.

I think when I put mine back together I had to be real careful to not bend the spring contacts when assembling the switch. I may have put the switch arm in the gray part first and then put the black cover on. But I honestly can't say for sure. I did check the switch continuity when I put the switch back together before I put the whole actuator back together.

 

Thanks for the help.
My microswitch switch arm is way smaller then in the pictures. Guess it changed with in the years.
Well, no spring anywhere to be found. Will be taking it apart again. Maybe it's sitting in some of that grease in the actuator .
Man, would sure hate to have to spend 600.00 for one . If anyone there has a picture of the spring out of the switch arm heck I'll attempt to make one.
Heck maybe some parts from an old relay switch
But may have to spend. Need to get it done before hunting season
Thanks for the info .

 

Hello tundra drivers.
After traveling about 200 miles around my state looking for a used actuator to fix my transfer actuator micro switch / neutral position switch -nada. They sell used transfer cases with everything attached and with all my niceness couldn't persuade them to sell me one. Couldn't even find a core to get the part. A salvage yard girl was so nice she gave me other salvage yard numbers to no avail. In case you haven't read my other post I have the parts I found for the switch but no spring . I'm going to attempt to make a small spring but I need a pic to see how the spring actually sits in the switch.
So if anyone has pics in file somewhere that shows how it sits I would appreciate it a whole lot.
Pretty sure I can do it and if I succeed I will share it to you guys in case it happens to u.
I've share the idea I have and my friends and they gave me many good ideas.
It's a 2010 tundra .

 

I made spring for my transfer case 4 low actuator microswitch. I had the gray lever and small black locking cap but no spring. With good small needle pliers and a piece of scrap metal from all things that small strip of metal from a wiper blade.
The thinnest gauge I could find. After about two hours i finally got it with a bit of alteration .
Got it to work.
Put my ohms meter and switch worked fine.
Then I noticed the rotating cam just barely touched the grey lever on the micro switch. Just added a bit of epoxy to tip of grey lever on switch then after it dried with a small file sanded it down to were it touched cam just enough to active switch. Used meter to check this.
I had noticed on pics that I have seen on the forum some of the microswitches seemed to barely touch cam. That was the idea for epoxy .
Actuator works fine .
I noticed that people were having trouble with how to put cam. Some called it timing or calibration.
I disconnected my battery for about 3 hours. I didn't want the actuators to reset themselves
. So the way I did it was I aligned the cam,
mine has two indentations on top of the rotating cam and with a number 1 that was on the 4 low actuator and a number 2 on 4 hi actuator.
I just aligned those indentations or you can use the number and set it right in the middle of micro switch. I found out as long as micro switch is between those perimeters it
Will work . Connected battery. No reset of the 4 wheel system.
Those hours I left the battery disconnected
Was enough to drain the pcm. My guess. By this method I didn't have to go back and forth taking the actuator apart trying to align.

4 wheel system works. Shifting was smooth with no loud noise from actuators. Now this method worked for me. 2 nd gen tundra

 

Hi everyone, I have the 4HI constant blinking light of death on my 08 RCSB. Will not shift into 4 HI at all, no discernible noise from motors. Ive been reading through here and examining things underneath. It seems there are 2 actuators, one on the front which seems to be the front axle/diff actuator and the transfer case actuator on the rear of the case. This thread seems to be concerning the rear actuator dissasembly, Is that the likley culprit for the issue not the front actuator/? is there a way I can test to see if one or the other is functional? Thanks for any help!

 

I'm planning on tearing in to this soon. When you guys talk about hooking the motor up to a 12v battery to test it with alligator clips, can I just hook it up to my truck's battery terminals? or is there some other 12v that you all have sitting around?

 

The first step is to troubleshoot the transfer case actuator since it operates first in the chain of events to engage the 4wd. If the transfer case doesn't move, neither will the front diff. If I were you, I would investigate the 4hi actuator on the transfer case as a starting point. With the key in "on" and engine not running, it should be making a whirring noise when it attempts to engage.

You can use any 12v source. I used an extra battery from my gate opener but any 12v source should do. Just a quick tap of the connections to make sure it spins is all you need. Don't sit there and run it continuously.

 

I was planning on tackling this fix because my 4WD had been acting up when I tried to activate it in my driveway. I bought the truck last April '21 for work and it was my DD work truck for a little over a year. I got a company car and now it sits unless I use it on the weekends. A 2007 with 234K (268 now), I never went off-road with it. When engaging, 4HI never sounded right. it would CLUNK when activating and sometimes wouldn't turn off right away. 4LO would just beep and blink at me. I chalked it up to an old-ass truck that didn't get the love it deserved.

Anyway, I figured I should at least drive this thing on some dirt just to see what it was and wasn't doing. There's a 9mi mellow dirt road that heads up a mountain about 15 min away from me so I headed up on Saturday with a sandwich and a tall can and some pringles. I tried 4HI and it gave me the clunk, but shifted. I drove in HI for a while and decided to try LO. It worked! I drove in 4HI for about 10 min and then shifted back to HI. Went a few minutes, back to LO. Everything worked perfectly.

What a relief! *knocks on wood*

 

Just dropping in to say thanks for the op and all the effort from others. I have done everything and then some described in this thread. I still don't have working 4wd and I can only get the t-case actuators to move if I unplug everything thing then plug it back in, flip my 4wd switch to a different position and then power on, and that is only sometimes. In any case I was at least able to confirm 4hi and 2wd positions in those limited successful attempts. My ADD just beeps away and doesn't do anything. I used a diagram I found on another forum to diagnose the ADD using a relay and a 12v battery from my power tools. I will post that diagram as well as some other evaluations of the selector switch once I get all my notes gathered back up and laid out nicely/legibly.

I have gone as far as buying a new sat014 box from aisin on bezos market and plugged it in and it does absolutely nothing leading me to believe my control unit is bad/needs reset. Time to return the box and get into the control unit behind the dash passenger side . Very frustrating but I cannot complain much. It's a 2011 with 98k miles (I've owned it since 21k) and this is literally the first problem I've had with the truck. Its faithully towed 10k plus pound trailer and a full bed from Texas to Ohio 2x. Light-years more reliable than the second hand Saab I owned years ago that had really dumb issues like constantly breaking power window regulators and a radio that didn't work because of a fiber optic audio signal from an amplifier located under the driver's seat. Anyway, thanks for this thread and I will post my notes later. If I ever get it to work I'll update what was needed to finally persuade it.