Electrical ? #2, GEM

[Curious Hound]

Here is half-baked question #2. This may be more for any Ford certified techs who are strong in electrical. “Why does the VSS signal go through the GEM on my 96 Explorer donor vehicle?”

I am considering taking the GEM out if the system and simplifying the electrical curcuits. I don’t really need the battery saver and a lot of the complexity of the extra relays and things in the GEM. So, why dies the speed signal travel through the GEM? Can that be deleted or bypassed? What is the GEM doing with that signal?

I will be using a manual transfer case. So I don’t need the electronic shift stuff. I can activate the 4-hi and 4-lo indicators in the gauge cluster directly from the position switch in my transfer case.

 

[franklin2]

It is for the electronic shift. The vehicle needs to not be moving or moving at a very very slow rate, before the GEM will tell the shift motor to go to 4 low. If you are moving along at decent speed and push the 4 low button, it will not try to put it in.