t-case slipping?

[--weezl--]

i got stuck in some deep snow today on a trail run, and while being recovered, the passenger in the truck pulling said that she could see one of my front wheels spinning, then the other one would start spinning, then they both stopped, but i was still throwing snow off of the rear wheels... how is this possible? i don't really see any posibility as to how the t-case it's self can slip, as i'm 99.99% sure the one i've got is chain drive...

i was in 4L at the time

2007 fx4 level II manual trans

additionally, my transmission is gone too

please be as fast with the responses as possible, as i am barely under warranty, and it needs to go to the dealership this week for an oil change anyways

 

[gjm4l]

If its an open front diff up front it works like an open rear. i.e. the power takes the path of least resistance. So you would see one tire spinning then if it started getting traction it would lose speed and the open spider gears would begin putting torque to the other tire causing it to speed up as it loses traction. It can happen LOTS on snow and ice as its very interesting as far as traction goes. Most likely the tires only seemed to stop as the open diff fed the path of least resistance from one side to the other. If it really did stop for like a full minute then it would make sense that theres something broken cause yeah chains kinda dont slip they shear stuff or break lol. Unless ford put a viscous coupling in the case that i didnt know about (doubt it in a truck) in which case my whole post is trash and thats normal lol.

Oh and yes that is horribly useless for offroading which is why you see and hear everyone saying locker, locker, locker! Imagine offroading in snow without that torsen in the rear lol. If you want more traction up front I would shy away from a ful on locker up front
A. Makes your truck wanna pull in a straight line any time your in 4x(hard to steer)
B. With that ifs front housing you WILL break stuff if you get on the happy pedal hard and attemt to cut the wheel.

Now I've seen lockers in your front set up that lasted but they were easy drivers. If you want something up front i would go with a limited slip which isnt perfect but uses a system sorta like a clutch to bias the power to the wheel with traction rather than the natural proclivity of front openness to give power fullbore to the tire thst cant use it. Plus it still allows some slip so you can actually stee in 4wd and since the axles arent truly "locked" together your cv's have a better shot at living a happy albeit tougher life.

 

[TastySloth]

I don't remember if the newer Level II's have the manual hubs, but if not I would guess the vacuum line got pinched or something with packed up snow. Might cause the hub to unlock?

 

[gjm4l]

My fuzzy little head just exploded. ^ forgot all about that possibility. Darn vacuum hubs.....

 

[01_ranger_4x4]

I don't remember if the newer Level II's have the manual hubs, but if not I would guess the vacuum line got pinched or something with packed up snow. Might cause the hub to unlock?

My fuzzy little head just exploded. ^ forgot all about that possibility. Darn vacuum hubs.....

no such thing as vacuum hubs in a ranger after model year 2000.5. they're are no lockouts what so ever on the newer rangers.

 

[gjm4l]

Did not know that. So newer rangers turn their front drives all the time but only get power when switched to 4x? No wonder the 04' 4.0 i drove for a bit only got 18mpg. Bummer. Can you put manual hubs on them or are you stuck? Sorry for the jack.

 

[01_ranger_4x4]

Did not know that. So newer rangers turn their front drives all the time but only get power when switched to 4x? No wonder the 04' 4.0 i drove for a bit only got 18mpg. Bummer. Can you put manual hubs on them or are you stuck? Sorry for the jack.

yeah thats how it works, although from my experience the MPG difference is barely noticeable. i know of people that have swapped 1998-2000 hubs assembly's and CV shafts so they could then use AVM/ Rugged ridge manual lockout conversions but that set up is much weaker than the newer "live" axle setup.

 

[--weezl--]

pretty much what you all said, the front end is a live axle setup, the driveshaft is "solid" to the wheels, (with the exception of the open diff) so it's not something there slipping, which would be nice, because i could just replace my hubs and be done with it...


i don't know how long my front wheels were stationary for, but apparently both were stopped, while the rears were spinning... i'll post up some pictures of my stuck, when i get them... i didn't take any

 

[gjm4l]

Well good luck to you sir. As i said before when the power gets sent to the other side it will look like they stopped as neither will really be spinning(throwing snow) hard as it transfers across the spiders but if they both stayed stopped that ain't good but it ought to be an obvious diag. Oh yeah. Does 4wd currently work? Did the fronts ever spin again? Did you notice anything strange sounding or feeling when they stopped? Also how mechanically inclined was the observer of this incident? Not trying to be mean to her just asking.

 

[--weezl--]

yes, 4x4 currently works, i've tried spinning the tires since (on snow) and can get all 4 spinning at once, she said they stopped, but then next try to pull, they started turning again... i'm not 100% sure on her knowledge, but her bf (the guy who was driving the truck pulling) knows a lot, so i would assume that she knows a fair amount... she's got a lifted 4 runner with a s/c on it, that she wheels from time to time

 

[bilzy7]

With vacuum actuated hub it won't just unlock. It needs pressure to click plastic hub to engage/disengage. I know it's bad to floor it on 4L.

 

[bilzy7]

Mine always do that, when slipping one spins and other doesn't till it gets traction. That's why I always keep my hubs locked in winter, it causes pretty bad spinouts.

 

[gjm4l]

Oh i gotcha. It seems if something broke it would stay broke. I think it was just an illusion for a minute but totally get the worry. Only other thing i could think of is it came outta 4x but since it was in low low you woulda known. Is it a manual or electric shift case? If it was me when it goes in for the oil change have the tech look at it since its under warranty. That way its documented in case something really is wrong but doent show itself til 37k the one dealer i worked for would honor it if the customer complained in warranty but they couldnt figure it out til later. Had a f-150 that wouldnt go into 4 low for a guy but i couldnt duplicate it and i looked at it 4 times only once under 36k. Couse that one ended up being he wasnt giving the shift solenoid time to engage 4lo before taking off lol.

 

[TastySloth]

no such thing as vacuum hubs in a ranger after model year 2000.5. they're are no lockouts what so ever on the newer rangers.

Ok well that makes sense then. The newest Ranger I have looked at that close was a '98 and I assumed they didn't change that much after then.

I'm lost now...

Missing tooth on ring gear? But that would be pretty evident.... good luck!

 

[--weezl--]

i suppose it is possible the t-case some how went into 2 low or something...

a little off topic, but not really... i noticed it wasn't switching for me later on, i was stopped, in neutral (manual trans) flipped it to 2h from 4l and nothing, no clicking, no motor noises, no change in the lights, it wouldn't do anything, tried 4h, tried it all several times, nothing, tried going forward and back while doing it... so i drove in 4l for a while longer, then tried it again, and it worked

electric t-case though, to answer your question