Unable to select low range 4 wheel drive

[Flying Torquewrench]

Good afternoon, after a long period of absence I am back.

Unfortunately the last 10 months have been quite hard on the family. It seems that nothing goes right at the moment and it all started with a car accident in Portugal. No personal injuries so that was a bonus.

4 days after we got back on the 2nd of October, Monarch Airlines went bust and both my wife and I found ourselves without a job. Quite a stressful time untill I had a new job which fortunately was quite quickly. However this meant that instead of being home everyday I was away for up to nine days which was not ideal but at least we had an income.

In the meantime we decided to set up a small scale chicken and goat rearing business for my wife to look after. This required planning permission as we live in the greenbelt and the council is making life very difficult. Even our planning & agricultural consultant says that the requirements of the council are way out of proportion for the small scale we are planning on. As an example, we are required to provide tracking diagrams of the Patrol with a small trailer to prove that we don’t clip the verges going around the corners of the lane. This sage has been going on for the last 8 months and the end is not in sight.

Anyway, all of the above can not be changed and as long as we got our health we can’t complain.

Back to the Patrol. For a while I have been unable to select low range 4 wheel drive. As I need to pull a trailer through our field I decided that today was as good as any to have a look at the problem. To select low range 4 wheel drive one pushes the range selector down before moving it aft. In my car it is not possible at all to push the range selector down. Therefore you can’t select low range 4 wheel drive. On the gearbox there is a range selector guide (picture below). To test the system I removed this guide and now it easily selects low range 4 wheel drive.

Without this guide is there a chance that the range selector will pop into a 4 wheel drive mode when driving in 2 wheel drive? I am thinking of leaving the guide off until I find the main problem and repair that. I drive around 200 miles a week with the Patrol and don’t want to risk it jumping into 4 wheel drive whilst doing motorway speeds.

Any advice?

 

[terranosaurusdoug]

Have you tried giving it all a wire brush and a spray with wd40 :nenau know banshee had a similar problem on a terrano and it turned out to be seized, cleaned it up and it worked :thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not yet. In the process of removing the linkage so that I can clean it. Hopefully that will solve the issue.

 

[terranosaurusdoug]

Not yet. In the process of removing the linkage so that I can clean it. Hopefully that will solve the issue.

Fingers crossed for a cheap fix mate :thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Thanks Terranosaurusdoug,

I think it is fair to say that I have found the culprit. A bit of a cleaning job but that hopefully does the trick.

 

[Barrbeast]

Glad you found the culprit bud! Once it's cleaned up just run the selector through the whole range every week or two to keep it working.

I think you'd be okay with the guide off, my understanding was the push down to select low is to stop you trying to select it on the fly as you should be stationary in neutral for selecting low.

 

[terranosaurusdoug]

Mafted :doh So is it supposed to be in those two pieces, there is so much crap on it it took me a minute to realise it was a spring :lol

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

The gaitor has a few holes in it and as a result a lot of dirt got in. Tok it all apart and gave it a good clean. Covered everything in a high quality grease and put it back together. Seems to be working as advertised.

Many thanks.

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

If it is a rubber gaiter like the T2 has, I repaired mine using several bicycle repair patches and rubber cement. Left it over night pressed between 2 bits of wood, and its been fine for quite a few years now.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not sure Lazy-Ferret. I will just replace the gaitor with a part of the inner tube of a motorcycle tyre or similar. Looking at the state of the gaitor it seems that replacement is better then repair.