slipping out of gear - 4WD high (1 Viewer)

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loeky

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Mar 24, 2005
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as the title says - it seems like my 4WDH is having a problem staying in gear. with the hubs locked and shifting to 4WDH, it starts fine but will then just slip out of gear and go to 2WDH. there's no bad noises or other symptom from what i can tell. while in 4WDH it seems to run just fine with no grinding or other noises. it just seems to pop out for no reason.

can anyone help shed some light on this for me? i'm hopeful its just an adjustment that needs to be made and not a symptom of a much larger problem. with no bad noises, it seems like something physical is popping it out for some reason.

also, 4WDL works just fine with no popping out of gear.

any help would be appreciated.
 
It's likely the clutch sleeve releasing off the engagement gear for the front output shaft. I think this is caused by high wear where the clutch fork rides on the sleeve of the clutch. In high, there isn't much else to pop out of. I suppose It could be a bad linkage adjustment, but I doubt it. Unfortunately you will likely have to disassemble the case to figure it out. You measure the clearence between the shift fork and the groove in the sleeve. If you're doing that, you may as well rebuild the case and replace the worn out parts. There are good pictures of this in the factory manual.

How many miles, and what's the maintanence history? Was it ever run low on gear oil?

Is there any chance the shifter is hanging up on the carpet or the body and preventing it from going into 4wd all the way? That's the only cheap/easy thing that I can think of.
 
thanks for the opinion drew. i'll go take a look to see that nothing physical is bumping it out of gear.

unfortunately the vehicle didn't come with any maintenance records and thus, i wouldn't know if it's run out of gear oil. i've had all the liquids changed in a full tune up when i got the truck.

that's a real project to pull the TC and go through it. anyone else have any insight that would save me all that work/money?
 
s*** s*** s***. ok drew thanks. i just noticed this happening to mine too. 4 lo is fine but 4 hi as soon as she gets gas under any real load she pops right out.
gues ill be starting that t-case rebuild now that ive been putting off for so long.
 
mne has run out of gear oil. it was empty when i bought it. thats how i found out i neede the rebuild went to check the fluids about a week after i bought it and noticed the rear output had a little play and the sucker was EMPTY. changed the seal and filled her up and steadily procrastinating the rebuild. any special reason you wanted to know if its been run low on fluid?
 
I thought of one other thing-A bad motor mount might cause the same symptom, so check that too before you get too dirty.
 
hmmmmm will do
roger roger
 
i guess it's good to know i'm not the only one w/ this problem. at least this way i get to see what others have done to remedy the situation.

i'll take a look at the motor mounts tomorrow during daylight as well as check the gear oil to make sure there isn't a slow leak - haven't noticed one, but who knows.
 
You can also use a bunji cord to hold the tranfer shifter in 4wH or 4wL. Really cheap, really easy.
 
ah yes. the bunji cord - now i have an excuse to go get that 300ct set.

checked out the motor mounts and they look fine. next up is to dig into the boots and see what's going on. not feeling real confident about knowing what to make of it, but we'll see.
 
Motor mount first, then, tranny mount... even a ¼ or ½ inch can make it pop out.

that solved my problem on my ex-BJ60.
 
lovetoski said:
You can also use a bunji cord to hold the tranfer shifter in 4wH or 4wL. Really cheap, really easy.

And a really bad idea....The problem with the bungie approach is that it causes the shift fork to ride against the side of the clutch slide, wearing it quickly and worsening the original problem. It is a temporary trail fix at best.. JMHO.
 
Cruiserdrew said:
And a really bad idea....The problem with the bungie approach is that it causes the shift fork to ride against the side of the clutch slide, wearing it quickly and worsening the original problem. It is a temporary trail fix at best.. JMHO.

Guess I was misinformed...learn something new everyday! Thx.
 
i'll have to take a look at the tranny mounts next. being in the city w/o a real garage makes things a bit more difficult.

i'll keep you guys aprised and thanks for the info drew & david.
 
I have this same problem. I'm expecting (hoping) it's the motor or tranny mounts but here's a quiz.... where in the FSM does it say anything about either of them??!? I bought the book and tried to look it up..and there's no mention/illustration that I can find anywhere!

Prolly a noob bein a boob..but I've gotta start somewhere. :eek:
 
4lowNgo said:
I have this same problem. I'm expecting (hoping) it's the motor or tranny mounts but here's a quiz.... where in the FSM does it say anything about either of them??!? I bought the book and tried to look it up..and there's no mention/illustration that I can find anywhere!

Prolly a noob bein a boob..but I've gotta start somewhere. :eek:

My local Totota dealer can print the page (like all the body part and engine part page).

Go see them and ask for a print picture of the mount.
 
Loeky:

Any news on the slippage? Mine does the same thing and I was curious what you found. I just put a nused front half (from Landcruiserparts.net) on my T-case in March and would be pretty pissed if it was worn already.

I know the motor mounts are okay, but I haven't checked the tranny mounts or the shift lever.
 
browndog -

i straddled a couple posts on the subject and should have followed up on this one. here's my findings:

i ended up removing both inner and outter shifter boots and cutting the inner one so that it didn't force the shifter out of 4WL. there may in the future be a problem with the detent springs, but i honestly haven't gone that far. the plastic inner boot was so stiff from lack of use that it seemed to be an obvious answer to the popping out of gear issue. i've driven it around a bit to try and get it to slip. on hills in the city and different speeds and it hasn't done the same thing. will try out in the snow this weekend!

i should probably replace the spring at some point but with my particular truck, i don't believe four wheel drive was used very much, if at all, in any capacity. from that, i don't believe there is even normal wear on the parts to warrant being replaced.

... that and i've found that most of the other fixes/maintenace on my truck has been very simple stuff. no need to go replacing the whole TC for something that can be fixed with a pocket knife, right? :]

give it a whirl and let us know if it works for you. takes about 30 minutes total to do. getting the boots realigned back up is the hardest part.
 
Same problem here, and i also believe it to be the lower boot. Cutting it seems to be a good idea.

I was confused today when a blazer made it up a hill that i couldn't (snow) until i saw that my 4wd light had turned off. Grrr.

Dave
 
Try checking to make sure that the shift lever is not being hit by the cutout on the floor. I have heard of people nibbling out additional metal both above and below the 4wd shift lever. Also check for a worn out detent plunger and weak detent spring in the xfer case.

Tom
 

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