In article <004701c37e35$756ba060$13ae6389@radon>, don.rey@uconn.edu ("Don
Rey") writes:
>
>
> I hope I didnt break something!
>
> I'm having serious difficulty disengaging 4H in my 89 Dakota Convertible
> (automatic). I went to a local dirt road to give the transfer case a little
> massage today. It shifted into 4wd no problem, but now I can't shift out of
> it. I've tried driving in reverse, back to drive, etc. I even gave 4L a try.
> 4L engaged and returned to 4H with no problems. But it still won't return to
> 2wd. Any suggestions? Does it sound like I broke the transfer case? I drove
> conservatively on the dirt road, never over 30mph (rarely over 20). Also,
> since the last time I used 4wd (successfully I might add), all I've done is
> an oil change and replaced the tires. Thanks in advance!!!
>
If the lever moves back and forth then you are disengaging 4wd. The light on
the floor is activated by a switch on the axle disconnect on the passanger side
of the axle. The axle disconnect is activated by a vacuum switch on the
transfer case. This switch is notorious for sticking. I find on mine that if I
rapidly move the lever from 2wd to 4wd low it will usually free up the switch.
In the 250,000 miles I put on my 89 I replaced the transfer case vacuum switch
three times until I gave up and started using the method I mentioned.
When the light stays on it's like driving a older 4wd vehicle with the hubs
locked with the transfer case in 2wd. The axle and front drive shaft spin. It
does waste some gas but does no harm.
The other thing to do if the rapid moving of the lever does not work is make
sure you did not knock one of the vacuum lines of the axle disconnect. Also,
quick way to verify if the vacuum switch is the thing that is at issue would be
to swap the vacuum lines on the axle disconnect.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:46:58 EST