I would like to resurrect this thread once again. I am having trouble narrowing down this issue on my Ranger...so first, specifics:
1999 Ranger XL (assuming it is an XL.. it is the most basic model made)... I bought this truck a month ago, 4wd worked fine, used it twice in a month. Then, after the first snow storm of the year, I put the flipped the switch from 2wd to 4wd, heard all the normal clicks (I am new to electric 4wd, only ever owned a stick 4wd) then nothing happened. Then the 4HI and 4 LOW lights started flashing, 6 times.
After spending a long time researching and talking to various people more knowledgeable about vehicles than I am, my father (who knows more about vehicles in his little finger than I know in my whole body) and I started to tear into the issue. The problem is, is that he has never worked on a 4wd vehicle. Only typical 2wd's and high performance race cars.
So we have been "chasing the dragon"
- checked the fuses, 20A in the distribution box, it was fine... pulled out all the fuses in fuse panel, they are fine...
- went to transfer case motor... all connections are intact and don't seem corroded...
- pulled transfer case motor off of transfer case, disconnected wiring (except for the brown wire running from the case itself to connector)... put meter to it, it is reading out put, although only some millivolts...
- disconnected brown wire (ok, cut brown wire) hooked motor to 12V... it completed it's cylce just fine..(reversed polarity, and it turned the opposite direction)
- checked front switch (the dealer told me he replaced the switch when got the vehicle because it was broken)... their are 4 contacts in the switch connector... when hooked to a meter, the switch is showing continuity... the female end of connector is only showing continuity between the two outer prongs and between the two inner prongs.. and it is only putting out 5V for those.
- traced vacuum lines from tire to engine compartment.. then (we are about 99% sure we got the correct lines because after we traced from tires to a tee, we think the line ran up by the distributor) we hooked up a vacuum tester to the lines... the lines from the tires would bleed off any pressure above 15psi, but would hold steady at 15... the line coming from the motor would push about 20 psi (of course, we had to start the engine to check that)
- put truck on blocks... with a pair of vice grips, manually turned transfer case to 4HI position (and 4LO, but back to HI for the test), started engine, put in drive, and let off the brake. All axles were spinning, BUT not the front tire.
So, obviously the front hubs are not locking into place, but this brings up several questions...
1. In an electrical system, something has to "tell" the motor to move to 4wd and has to "tell" the hubs to lock into place (or tell something that creates the vacuum, that in turn, locks the hub in place....right?
1.A. If something in that system fails, does everything fail?.... After some research, I am finding that this is called a "4wd control module".. everything we read says that this is box with two things plugged in it, with a white button and a red LED light.. we can't find that anywhere to check it...we found two boxes behind the radio.. one part number is "XL5T-14B205-EC" (which shows up on ebay a type of computer module, and it has 4x4 on the sticker)... the other part number is "F59F-2C018-AA" (which shows up on ebay as an ABS control-type thingy.... we also found "F57B-6912-AA" (which is a transfer case relay)... so if one of these modules in not working 1) how do you test to see if it is indeed one of these...2) would that cause both the hubs to not lock in AND the transfer case motor to not work?
Sorry for the long post, but we are stuck, and don't know which way to turn next.. Thanks in advance for any replies this post may get... Thank you also for letting join your community!!