Center Diff Lock light blinking (1 Viewer)

[Nailhead]

2004 GX with 100K miles, never been off road. I had this problem last summer and backing up made it go away. Today I was informed that the light has been blinking the last four days. The diff lock button was probably pushed twice in the past 16+ years. Today I tried backing up several times in 4H and 4L. It appears the diff is stuck in the locked mode. I gave the actuator a few taps with a dead blow hammer and nothing happened. Should I hear any sound when the cdl button is pressed? Could the switch be bad? Is it hard to remove. I checked fuse 50 in the drivers side fusebox and it was OK. I didn't look at under the hood fuses. Used a code scanner and no codes appear. I searched this forum and the internet. I see on youtube where some people remove the actuator by removing the 3 bolts, unplugging the harness and vacuum line. Then rotating the actuator to pull it out. This makes me nervous, I think you could easily ruin the plastic gears. Does the actuator push the shaft in to lock the diff or pull it out? Anyone have any experience with this method? I don't see any evidence of oil leaks from the actuator which other people have seen.
Thanks for your help.

 

[CarolinaGX]

I don't have any experience with this, sorry. Do you have techstream to see if it has stored a trouble code?

 

[Nailhead]

It was stuck in locked position. Shift rod is extended out of transfer case. Pushed it in and it unlocked. The gear that drives off the motor was out of place. I don’t think it will shift into lock again and I didn’t try. I was able to time it to get the VSC light off and cdl stopped blinking. There was a good post on a four runner forum about how to set it

 

[CarolinaGX]

I'm glad you figured it out.

 

[shiretowndown]

I dont have a locked center diff BUT upon finding this thread I learned that this black box attached to my transfer case is an Actuator?? My LX’s didnt have this.

my “black box” actuator is drippy. Is there a gasket or seal that could be bad?

 

[GJMacK3]

There are a o-rings that seal the actuator to the t-case. They are a known leak source. The "official" repair is to remove the t-case, and split it in half to remove the seals. There are several very good, detailed write-ups on how to replace the o-rings by just removing the actuator. There are also some videos on Youtube showing the process.