Potentially Fun 4X4 Problem...

First off, apologies if this has been posted already somewhere else but I've looked around and can't seem to find this exact issue.

Purchased the Tundy a few months ago and went through the recommended maintenance of Water Pump/Timing belt, replaced a leaky brake master cylinder a few weeks back.

I've been holding off on this issue since I bought her, but I think it's time to get into it...

I purchased the truck knowing that the 4x4 wasn't currently working. 4hi and 4lo constantly flash on the dash (read on the sticky that this indicates the TC motor may be unplugged). Hasn't been an issue yet, truck is in 2hi (to my knowledge) and I get around West Texas fine and dandy.

Now that we're getting into the wet season I'm getting around to putting this system back in order. Crawled under the truck today to check out the TC shift motor actuator. Reading around online I assume the issue (hopefully) lies with the contacts in there being dirty and corroded.

I noticed that the drive shaft going to the front diff is locked. Haven't been able to jack the truck up yet but I can make tight turns just fine and there isn't any indication that I'm in low gear (truck accelerates normally). I also noticed that the ADD actuator sensor was unplugged. I went ahead and plugged that back in.

I believe the previous owner had attempted to rebuild the TC actuator and may have tried to shift into 4hi while the ADD sensor was unplugged. Imo this would explain why the transfer case is locked, but I'm not in 4x4.

To me this would also make sense as to why both lights constantly flash on the dash (ECU confused and won't make any changes one way or the other).

I want to take the cover of the TC actuator off (black plastic) and reset the timing/unlock the transfer case to sync things back up. I started the removal today but noticed that the entire housing wants to rotate clockwise when screws are removed. I rotated it back to it's original position and buttoned it back up to avoid making things worse.

My question is, what would be the harm in letting it rotate in order to remove the housing and set the actuator back to the correct position?


TLDR
- I believe the front and rear 4x4 actuators are out of sync
- Rear seems to be locked in 4hi
- Actuator housing wants to rotate counter clockwise when screws are removed
- Truck behaves as if in 2hi
- Both dash lights flashing continuously


Any advice appreciated, couldn't seem to find similar issue online

 

Start here...

https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gen-4wd-issues-diagnosis-prevention-guide.149189/