CDL actuator wiring (1 Viewer)

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bozeman montana
Help cdl gods! For the past 2 days I’ve been trying to diagnose why the cdl on my 97 fzj80 doesn’t actuate. To my knowledge it was never wheeled so I’m assuming 4low hasn’t been us in maybe forever. I’ve been going through the old posts about cdl issues and I’ve been checking things off the list. So far I’ve...

-jumped the cdl actuator switch- light DOES COME ON

-tested all 3 of the switches on the transfer case - 2 were at .2 ohms, one was a little sticky and I had to put a lot of pressure on it to get it to .7 ohms

-double checked my testing by swapping them with out with the ones on my 96, the cdl actuated on the 96 but not on the 97 in question

-took the actuator off, and stripped it, nothing looked like it came off of a submarine. So I put it back together

-( this is a little questionable) - proceeded to get frustrated and connected the actuator to the battery. The terminal on the top left and the one directly next to it (on the right) made it move one way, flipped the leads and it made it move in the opposite direction. So it’s not a frozen motor

- swapped the cdl relay with the one on the 96. The cdl on the 96 actuated, but still no dice on the 97 in question.

- checked voltages from the harness, if I’m remembering right, the top middle pin on the harness had 14v. And now that I’m posting this I can’t remember what the others had.

My suspicion is that the actuator isn’t getting power, I’m a little wiring dumb so something important probably went over my head when I was reading up on this.

Thanks I’m advance!
 
Rather than swapping a bunch of parts or random tests/diagnostics take a more logical progression through the circuit.

The first thing to test if the CDL relay is activating. With the engine off , turn the ignition to ON without starting. Shift to low range and you should hear the CDL relay click in the driver side kick panel. If no sound then either the CDL relay or wiring is an issue. Have you tried testing the CDL relay from the 97 into the 96? If you hear the relay click then you should also here the whirl of the CDL actuator underneath the vehicle.

Next if the 97 CDL relay works in the 96 then you more than likely have a wiring issue. One possibility is that a previous owner may have added a CDL dash switch, done the "Pin 7 Mod" and then removed the switch before selling and didn't restore the wiring modifications or reinstalled the factory jumper.

Do the above tests and report back results. Then we can determine the next things to test.
 
I might have typed this part wrong- for clarification. The cdl relay on both 80s work. The 96 has a part time kit and the cdl gets used a lot! There was a thread where someone had their cdl relay click but wasnt actual working. I did swap the relays on both 80s and the one from the 97 in question did work in the 96. But the actuator on the 97 in question did not mmake any noise

And I put a cdl switch in, it still had the factory cover on the harness and the foam on it looked intact. It kind of leads me to believe that the 7 pin wasn’t done either.

So I definitely agree I think there is an issue with the wiring somewhere upstream.
Any suggestions on what pins to test for the cdl actuator?
 
If you have a CDL dash switch installed then there is no need for shifting the transfer case into low range. Having the dash button makes the testing much easier.

Everything you need to know about wiring can be found in the 1996 EWD that has been posted in the Resources section of the form.


The CDL wiring can be found starting on page 150.
 

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