98 expy 4x4 fubar.

[737jet]

Okay, so I went to do a touch of off roading today. Pulled up to a hill I wanted to climb. Put her in neutral, flicked the selector to 4lo.

Heard some god awful sounds, turned the engine off.

Started it back up, whirring sounds were present, got worse with rpm. Selected 2wd, wouldn't go. Put it in drive, no go. sounds still present.


Farted around for a half hour, got it into 2wd. Or so I thought. got to the road, heard a funny whinning sound.

Punched it, shifted to third, rpm's held at 4500. truck slowed down, whirring noises and I'm in neutral again.

Managed to get her into 4x4 high, got it home.

WTF is wrong. Pls tell me it's just the 4x4 motor. If it's the tranny or transfer case, I'm done. No flow and pretty soon, getting laid off from work.

 

[737jet]

Update,

Okay, I tried to take the motor out. Wow, whoever designed this system deserves a full size 15 shoe up there a$$. I disconnected the wiring harness to the motor and removed it. Gues what?

There's still 4 wires that go to from the motor to the trans case that cannot be removed. WTF? Am I supposed to cut those wires? I even removed the motor from the 90degree gear box. The motor came off with springs and brushes. Still, two wires remain.

Any ideas?

 

[737jet]

Got it out, unfortunately had to cut 1 wire though. Here's the weird part. Found a bunch of filings on one the magnetic senors on t case.

 

[AvroAero]

Get another to put in? Not sure of the symptoms of a bad motor so not sure if thats it.

 

[XLTman]

This kinda sounds like i problem i had before i climbed a steep hill in 4low then when i got back down i tried to take it out of 4low and it was stuck 737jet have you tried throwing exp. into reverse and then into neutrel to unlock all four or just dissconect the battery hope this helps

 

[737jet]

Okay, so changed the motor out today. Turns out I didn't need to cut the last wire. You have to snap the back of the harness connector off, take the red pin retainer in the connector off and get a small pick to hold the tabs open as you pull the wires out. What a stupid a$$ design. WTF else is a connector for?

people die everyday for less and needlessly. The idiot who designed this shouldn't be breathing in my opinion.

After I swapped the motors it worked just fine. I was a bit scared that there might have been damage to the t case so I had the fluid changed at a shop. They said there was no significant metal in the oil.

If anyone else has a problem similar or just a problem with the 4x4, there is one thing that I'm pretty sure will work.

t cases make metal. A little or alot, who cares, ford's tolerances aren't exactly rocket science but hey they work. What I found is the two magnetic sensors that tie into the motor's harness and are held onto the t case with 2 10mm bolts should be cleaned.

There job is to detect when a certain gear is engaged ( 4HI, 4 LO ). when I took mine out to change the motor, guess what? fine metal shavings were stuck on the magnetic sensors.

I think the metal filings on the sensor might give the whole joke for a 4X4 system a false position, hence the grinding and disengagement.

Just take em out, clean em, throw em back in. You never know and it's alot easier than pulling pins from harness connector.

 

[737jet]

Spoke too soon. Now it engages and then the 4x4 light goes off, and won't come out of low. In park and in Neutral.

 

[737jet]

Okay, so after troubleshooting it myself, I realise that I need a scan tool to get past the multimeter tests.

She's at ford and they've told me it's going to be at least 2 hours labour at $101 per hour.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I know nobody really cares about this thread right now or they simply don't know what it could be but at least this way, you will have a definate answer as to what went wrong.

All of the threads out there on this subject list all the problems but no real answers. Frustrating.

I will have the answer! at the cost of an arm and a leg of course......

 

[ELVATO]

Damn, that sucks. Hopefully the stealership is able to fix the problem, without it costing too much.

 

[GRIP]

we care i never had a problem with 4 wheel drive so i have no answer's 4 you. where i live the only time it's in 4wd is like 2 times a year for 30 seconds to get out of some snow froma parking spot and thats it. the rest of the time it's beating up the black top.

 

[AvroAero]

Transfer cases are expensive dude so hope you don't end up with any surprises! I never stripped my Tcase but how did the gear that the motor connects to look?

 

[737jet]

Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound harsh you guys not caring, I just wanted to justify why I'm posting this thread up with up to second updated.

Yeah where I live, you don't need 4x4 at all. Even camping, 285 70 17's are about 32.5 inches in diameter and they never seem to get stuck. It's when I feel like taking a break from the city life, heading to the woods that I feel more cofident that the 4 by is there. Especialy low.


Stealership here in richmond bc were really nice actually. They called every time they thought it would be another hour's labour. They must have had the truck for like 6hours.

They only charged me for one though.
I got the truck back and washed for $131 and they were nice enough to tell me what the culprit was. The 4x4 dash switch.

I find it hard to believe. I tested it myself after at home. You basicly take it out, look at the 4 pins in the connector and measure the resistance between connectors 2 and 3.

switch in 2wd, the resistance between connectors 2 and 3 should be 3700 to 4100 ohms

switch in 4hi, the resistance between connectors 2 and 3 should be 1050 to 1150 ohms.

Switch in 4lo, the resistance between connectors 2 and 3 should be 340 to 380 ohms.

Mine has 1.5 ohms at the most. Switch is easy to get too. You don't even need a tool. Pry off the cover around the stereo/climate control. It should just pop off with the vents.

Disconnect the four wire connector from the back and do the resistance check.

 

[737jet]

Crap. I had the multimeter on the wrong settings. Turns out the switch is okay. I bought a used one anyways, threw it in, no go. Still dead.

It's at ford. They're going to test the switch and if it's okay, they'll give me the money back for diagnostics.

Doesn't matter, gonna have to spend it back anyways because the problem isn't solved yet.

My lock/unlock key doesn;t work now either. They seem to think the battery died in it. Didn't you guys just test the GEM? Doesn't it control the remote?

 

[737jet]

Okay, got a call back from ford. Here's the deal so far.......

They said the've worked on it for appx 3 hours and have found a short somewhere in the wiring.

Because they charged me for the misdiagnosis yesterday, they called it even up to now.

They figure another couple hours on monday!

 

[Stoned06]

Nice to see a dealer actually not screwing a customer with diagnosis fees. Most dealers would just keep the hour bill rolling no matter what. Hopefully they find your problem.

 

[737jet]

Yeah man, man hats off to them. I hate shorts. I usually just cut the wire at both ends and lay in another.

In this case, they have to find were the one end is. These wires are a certain color on one end and end up changing on another.

They are close though!!!

 

[737jet]

Gotta call today. not sure what the bill will be yet. Monday will find out.

GEM and the box or something it goes into is shorting according to ford.

 

[737jet]

So, the Gem and the fusebox or maybe 1 is the culprit. They had it apart and after I looked at the harness to fusebox terminals, I saw the problem. There was green corrosion on the male blades on the fusebox sides.

For those who haven't done this, it's very easy to take this module and fusebox out. Don't think at all that wires and sparks will be everywhere. It's very very simple and the wires are all in a connector.

First, pop off the dash peices beside the steering wheel column

On the left side, there will be one 9/32 screw holding the lower dash panle on. Take that and all of the rest holding that lower dash panel on. Take the e brake release handle and the hood handle off too.

Last, there is a pair of 9/32 screws on the metal just under the fuses. After that panel is off, take off the 4 10mm bolts and nuts around the fuse panel.

You have to look for a tab now. It's on the fuse panel near the bottom of the fuses. It needs to be pushed up while you push the fuse box forward, towards the front bumper.

Once the fuse panel is loose, you'll see the wiring harness. Unclip the ones going to the gem (I used my fingers). For the main harness, there's two 10mm bolts that hold the harness on. Take them off, pull side to side and pop off the harness. This is where you should see some corrosion.

Very easy so far. Now the GEM / Fusebox assy is in front of you. Take off the 3 screws. They'll be phillips head or torx head. Gently pry it out and read the # off the GEM module to replace.

I picked up mine from the wreckers. Can't afford new. Hope it works too. Wreckers don't offer warranty with electrical.

I tried doing it myself to my truck but Ford's tech was off today and they said they'll have it all back together for tomorrow. I figured I'd swap it with a used one as they were going to put it all back together anyways.

I wanted to post pics but not sure if this site will let me.

 

[JUST4FUN]

read this
http://www.expeditionforum.com/foru...d=471063&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

 

[737jet]

Okay, bill to figure out it was the gem or fusebox and to put it in was $400.

I figured since they were going to put the old one in anyways, I'd give a used one a shot. It worked. You'ld think that after ford issues a TSB about the common problem being the water leaking onto the fusebox/Gem, the tech's at ford would easily just point it out.

Instead, I get answers like " it's your 4x4 switch" or " Nope, not the GEM, it's a shorted wire" and finaly Yup, it is the either the GEM or the fusebox, better replace both"

If they had just researched ford's tsb, they would have found the problem in a half hour.

The old fusebox/GEM is at work, I'm going to take it apart and repair it. I'm going to take lots of pic's and write a detailed procedure on how to remove, clean and water proof the GEM and fusebox so if anyone else complains about this problem, they will have an accurate fix.

Should have this up in a week.