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