Transfer case shaft points between drive positions, can't mount motor

[Marzon]

I have a 2006 ranger stuck in 4WD. I am trying to replace the shift motor. But when I removed the old motor, I found the shaft detents seem to have shifted a quarter turn and now don't line up with anything. The arrow shaped transfer case shaft is pointing to about 11 O'clock, which is halfway between the 2H and 4H marks on the case. I can manually rotate the shaft to about 4 O'clock, which would be enough rotation to be pointing at 4H if it had been pointing at 2H to start with. The shift motor arrived aligned pointing at 2H as marked on the case. I can energize it and move it to 4H or 4L but because the shaft is not pointing to any position the shift motor indexes to, I cannot mount the new shift motor. The truck was driving fine until it got stuck in 4WD. Any idea how to fix this.

 

[scotts90ranger]

You should be able to rotate that shaft to the 2hi position on the T case, there's two detents one for 2hi and one for 4 low, in the explorer I had that the shift motor didn't work I just took the motor off and used pliers to shift between those detents.

 

[Marzon]

I can move the shaft, the problem is that it doesn't stop on the detents marked on the transfer case (the ones that line up with the positions the motor stops at) It will only stop at positions between them. It's like the transfer case shaft detents have shifted a quarter turn and now they don't line up with the either the motor or the markings on the case, and it won't stop anywhere else.

 

[pjtoledo]

that shaft drives a couple springs. in turn the springs do the actual shift fork moving.

turn the shaft/apply pressure to where it needs to be then rotate the driveshafts so the parts can align & shift.