Extra wire from transfer case

[Effieman]

Had to replace the transfer case shift motor on my 98 Ranger. The transfer case has a single wire coming out of it that does not go to the 8 pin connector from the motor. I can't find a shift motor that has this extra wire. Had to get one without it. It shifted and the lights work, and low range is low range. BUT, after reading another post here, it seems the wire is to sync the front axle to the rear. Does this mean that while I am in low range (or even high), I'm only in two wheel drive? I just shifted it and drove about 10 feet to check if was in fact in low range.
Can anything be done to make this motor (and 4X4?) work without having this extra wire? It seems all the motors were rebuilds from Cardone, which is no longer...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I think I know what you’re talking about, I’ve run into this before. I just un-pinned the plug so I could slip it in the replacement plug.

I ended up un-pinning it and repairing the one I recently did and just reassembling. It could be swapped to a new plug, it’s not a big deal.

 

[Effieman]

Mine is not in the plug. It was a single spade connector. The wire comes directly out of the transfer case, like in your video, but there is no extra wire from the shift motor, like the original. So, basically I now have a single wire coming from the transfer case, with no wire from the motor to connect it to. There are 7 wires in the new connector, just like the old one.
Hope this clears things up.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Mine is not in the plug. It was a single spade connector. The wire comes directly out of the transfer case, like in your video, but there is no extra wire from the shift motor, like the original. So, basically I now have a single wire coming from the transfer case, with no wire from the motor to connect it to. There are 7 wires in the new connector, just like the old one.
Hope this clears things up.

How many wires in the truck side plug? It’s entirely possible someone cut the wire and put a spade connector on at some point not knowing they could un-pin at the plug

 

[Curious Hound]

It's for the clutch that gives you "shift on the fly" capability. If you always stop to shift in and out of 4wd, you don't need it. As you mentioned, it helps synchronize the shafts for shifting while moving at low speeds. Once the shift is completed, it doesn't do anything.

Here are the wiring diagrams ('93). In '93, that wire did pass through the plug. However, I can confirm that in my transfer case, that wire is brown. My orange wire actually goes to the motor windings.

 

[Effieman]

How many wires in the truck side plug? It’s entirely possible someone cut the wire and put a spade connector on at some point not knowing they could un-pin at the plug

The original truck side plug and the original shift motor both had 7 wire in them.
I'm the original owner of the truck. I also was thinking I may have done it before, without remembering it, but the spade connector was crimped with a factory looking crimp.

 

[Effieman]

It's for the clutch that gives you "shift on the fly" capability. If you always stop to shift in and out of 4wd, you don't need it. As you mentioned, it helps synchronize the shafts for shifting while moving at low speeds. Once the shift is completed, it doesn't do anything.

Here are the wiring diagrams ('93). In '93, that wire did pass through the plug. However, I can confirm that in my transfer case, that wire is brown. My orange wire actually goes to the motor windings.

View attachment 143897View attachment 143898

My wire from the transfer case is also brown, but I don't know where any wires actually go. Looks like the wire is simply for the magnetic clutch. Do you know if it could simply be fed 12 volts before shifting 'on the fly' to make it work?
I know the wire color on the original motor and the new one didn't match.
Does this mean my transfer case may have problems then?...
What happened was I helped a friend move a car that had been sitting and sank in the grass. I was in 4 low and it seemed to only be in 2 wheel drive, as only the back tires seemed to slip in the muddy grass. Then when I shifted back to 2 wheel drive, and let off the clutch, it made a horrendous racket like gears 'skipping', but the truck didn't move. Eventually got back in 2 wheel and it moved. Left it alone. Changed motor.... now this.

 

[Curious Hound]

It's probably fine. It may not have cycled fully into 4-hi or 4-lo. It is best to shift it quarterly or monthly to keep the lubrication stirred up and clean the position contacts in the motor gearbox. If that is done, these things are very reliable.

Can you get a picture showing your transfer case, shift motor and plug/plugs? It would be helpful to see exactly what your setup looks like presently.

 

[Effieman]

It's probably fine. It may not have cycled fully into 4-hi or 4-lo. It is best to shift it quarterly or monthly to keep the lubrication stirred up and clean the position contacts in the motor gearbox. If that is done, these things are very reliable.

Can you get a picture showing your transfer case, shift motor and plug/plugs? It would be helpful to see exactly what your setup looks like presently.

I may be able to get a pic, but posting it is where I usually have problems. LOL
Maybe I'll try to post if from the phone itself....

 

[Effieman]

It's probably fine. It may not have cycled fully into 4-hi or 4-lo. It is best to shift it quarterly or monthly to keep the lubrication stirred up and clean the position contacts in the motor gearbox. If that is done, these things are very reliable.

Can you get a picture showing your transfer case, shift motor and plug/plugs? It would be helpful to see exactly what your setup looks like presently.

It's probably fine. It may not have cycled fully into 4-hi or 4-lo. It is best to shift it quarterly or monthly to keep the lubrication stirred up and clean the position contacts in the motor gearbox. If that is done, these things are very reliable.

Can you get a picture showing your transfer case, shift motor and plug/plugs? It would be helpful to see exactly what your setup looks like presently.

Best pic I can get. You can see some wires from the plug, and the extra wire hanging from the transfer case itself...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

The original truck side plug and the original shift motor both had 7 wire in them.
I'm the original owner of the truck. I also was thinking I may have done it before, without remembering it, but the spade connector was crimped with a factory looking crimp.

Not all transfer cases had the extra wire. I mentioned in my video that my dad’s 99 had the wire, but neither of the 2000 trucks had it.

Makes me wonder if someone swapped t-cases

Really, t-cases of any design should be cycled all the way to 4-low and back at least once a month in my opinion or they tend to not act right, in my opinion. Should be also moved in each setting even if it’s just a few feet to splash lube all around everything. My F-150 when I bought it came with a brand new, but stuck, manual 4x4 shifter. The guy had a new one put on the previous winter because it had froze up but never cycled it all summer. I managed to free it up but it gets stiff if I don’t keep after it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Once the front axle is live, there's no need for the clutch, if you have manual hubs, also no need for the clutch as the front shaft is already spinning... so that would explain why a '00 wouldn't have the clutch but a '98 would since '00 is life axle... but it's Ford, do you ever really know what they did?

 

[Effieman]

Not all transfer cases had the extra wire. I mentioned in my video that my dad’s 99 had the wire, but neither of the 2000 trucks had it.

Makes me wonder if someone swapped t-cases

Really, t-cases of any design should be cycled all the way to 4-low and back at least once a month in my opinion or they tend to not act right, in my opinion. Should be also moved in each setting even if it’s just a few feet to splash lube all around everything. My F-150 when I bought it came with a brand new, but stuck, manual 4x4 shifter. The guy had a new one put on the previous winter because it had froze up but never cycled it all summer. I managed to free it up but it gets stiff if I don’t keep after it.

The transfer case is the one that came in the truck back in Jan of 1998 when I bought it with 14 miles on it. Now at 368K, it's been falling apart. LOL
I use to live further out of town on a gravel road that was very steep, so I was always shifting from 2 to 4 high so as to minimize potholes in the gravel. Never had problems then, but that was back in the 2010s. Now I hardly think to put it in 4 wheel drive.
Couldn't tell in the video, do you remember if your connector was 'full' of all 8 wires? Thinking now that I need to look at the new plug on the motor and see if all 8 wires are 'filled in'. If so, I'll try splicing the 'extra wire' in the new motor's plug into the one from the transfer case. Sound logical?

 

[Curious Hound]

Sound logical?

Only if it's the same color. Some plugs had more than 8 wires. I would suspect that if it's an 8-wire plug, you will not find anything extra.

2 wires for motor
2 wires for sensor
4 wires for position switches
= 8 wires. There won't be any unused.

 

[Effieman]

Only if it's the same color. Some plugs had more than 8 wires. I would suspect that if it's an 8-wire plug, you will not find anything extra.

2 wires for motor
2 wires for sensor
4 wires for position switches
= 8 wires. There won't be any unused.

But the wire colors on the new motor don't match the original, as far as positions go. And the original plug on mine only had 7 wires installed. So there was one 'blank' in the plug, and the extra wire was the 8th. Was thinking maybe they integrated it into the plug on other years, since your description of the wires don't match my plug. What do you think?