96 ford explorer 4x4 question

[kokopelli]

one of my brothers has a 96 ford explorer xlt 4x4 with auto trans. the people who had the car before i can not talk for but story goes they pulled the drive shaft because the vehicle was always in 4 wheel drive... yea, kinda stupid i know. any way, i looked under his truck at the transfer case and the housing on the back of the electric shift is gone and the wires & etc. are hanging out of it. i gotta guess that this is the problem.
this vehicle isn't worth much money. it's ugly. my brother is broke and doesn't wanna fix it if it's gonna cost any thing. i remember when the ranger i had was havin 4x4 issues i had pulled the electric shift and jumped it to get it to 4h (had manual locking hubs and was just a toy anyway) set the transfer case the same and put it back on. so my question is, is there any way of running a 3 way toggle switch or something similar eliminating the electric shift and/or dash switch?
i know that the shift module and all tells the electric shift where to stop so didn't know if this could be done and thought it would be sweet if it could. any way, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks and happy holidays

 

[kokopelli]

no snazzy ideas? any one? ...

 

[jims89broncoII]

my guess is the shift motor is shot... you can replace it cheap expecially if you find one on here.

if you pull the Tcase shift motor you can see what the its is engauged in, youll see it says 4lo 2hi 4hi,then you can manually shift it with some plyers.

you can put a 2 way switch on the brown wire going to the 4x4 switch so you can have all time 2wd.

 

[kokopelli]

my guess is the shift motor is shot... you can replace it cheap expecially if you find one on here.

if you pull the Tcase shift motor you can see what the its is engauged in, youll see it says 4lo 2hi 4hi,then you can manually shift it with some plyers.

you can put a 2 way switch on the brown wire going to the 4x4 switch so you can have all time 2wd.

yea, theres not a doubt that the shift motor is bad... 2 way on the brown wire? just to be clear on this:
disconect the brown wire and 4 wheel drive will not work?
then i should be able to set his truck to 4hi, install the 2 way switch on the brown wire and he can just throw the switch to turn it off and on?


thanks for the info man... just makin sure i got it right, not bein my car and all lol

 

[jims89broncoII]

well what i did to my 01 was i spliced a 2 way switch inline with the brown wire going to the 4x4 dash switch. left the dash switch on 4auto, turn the inline switch on for 2hi.

it could also give you 2low by keeping the inline switch on and shifting the dash switch to 4low... for whatever reason you would need it...i dont know???

i dont know about completly disconnecting the wire from the dash switch.. id probably just put it inline.

 

[kokopelli]

yea, i knew you meant to keep the wire hooked up... i didn't know that that wire controlled the power for the four wheel drive system tho... since the electric shift motor is shot, i'm thinkin set the t case to 4hi, install the switch inline with the dash 4hi setting instead of the auto 4 and that should give him the 2hi and 4hi settings thru the toggle switch right?

 

[jims89broncoII]

well, you would have to put it inline with the auto setting wouldnt you since the tcase is something like all time 4wd? because if the rear wheels slip it sends a signal to the auto hubs that engauge them to catch traction.

i dont know about this forum but i know alot of guys did it on their exploreres over at explorerforum.com. try doing a search for brown wire mod there... or here.

 

[jims89broncoII]

found this. it might help

Type 1 (2WD, Auto4WD, 4LO)

95-96 Explorers came with the type 1 your referring to, and have an actual 2wd mode. Burn the rear tires all you want here. Lock it in 4wd and you can manuever nicely like an AWD vehicle due to the clutches. When wheel slippage is sensed the front wheels momentarily receive power for a few seconds, unlocks, and repeats the process if necessary. To "lock" it in 4wd manually, you would have to do the "brown wire" mod.

Both systems are easily dealt with by using the "brown wire" mod. You can find the info here...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=149388

 

[kokopelli]

i'll try doing the search, thanks agin man

 

[jims89broncoII]

try this link. it should answer all your ?'s

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147419&highlight=brown+wire+mod+writeup