biggman100 Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 I am having an odd issue with a 2004 Explorer. In park, and while driving, it makes an odd grinding noise near the end of the trans where the TC connects. In park, the higher the RPM's, the louder the noise. After a roughly 40 mile, mostly highway trip, it was spewing gear oil from the front axle vent, which leads me to believe the TC is stuck in 4WD, but, it isnt a full time AWD TC, it is part time. I have never seen this happen with any other vehicle. Another odd issue is that, especially at lower speeds, the 4X4 light on the dash will constantly flash, which makes me think it is constantly trying to engage 4WD, which it shouldnt. Im at a loss on this one, but before i replace the TC, im curious as to what might cause this to happen. I did replace the trans about a month ago, with a known good used one, so i highly doubt the issue is with the trans, but i am also not completely convinced the issue isnt an electrical problem with the TC, and i dont want to replace that, just to have the issue return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Moses Ludel Posted March 12, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 12, 2017 Sounds like you nailed it, biggman100! The transfer case is not disengaging to part-time 2WD mode. This is likely the TC control switch or the electrical shift mechanism. Neighbor had a similar problem and replaced the control switch, which solved the problem. Test the switch before spending money on a replacement switch. Let us know which it is... Moses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggman100 Posted March 13, 2017 Author Share Posted March 13, 2017 Moses, as always, thank you for the advice. After actually discussing it with the owner, i think the only remedy would be to replace the TC, since i have since found that it was doing it from the time i replaced the trans, or shortly thereafter, and it has been at least two months now, with several trips on the highway of at least 40 miles each, and, due to other issues with it, just replacing the control switch may not help the other issues. Most likely, i am just going to replace it using the one from the vehicle i took the trans from, since i know that before that engine went, there were no issues with that vehicle, except for how bad it rusted away. I am doing this based on, since they have driven it that much with it acting like this, it wont be long before it ends up blowing up anyway, so might as well just replace it now, before it becomes a bigger headache. Another thing that came to mind about it, the guy who has it now, bought it from CL with a bad transmission to begin with, so i cant verify that issue wasnt there before he bought it, so, after looking at every angle of it, i think a replacement is the better option. One lesson learned, never try to diagnose a vehicle on second hand information. The initial info i got was from his brother, who had only driven it once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Moses Ludel Posted March 13, 2017 Administrators Share Posted March 13, 2017 Sounds like a plan...Let us know how this works out! Moses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggman100 Posted August 12, 2017 Author Share Posted August 12, 2017 Moses, this was another one of those, waiting on money situations, but, i finally got back to it, and found a laundry list of problems, mainly because he had someone try to "help" him fix what he thought was wrong before bringing it back to me (to try and save himself money, which rarely ever works out). The rear trans mount was somehow melted, and one bolt was broke off in the housing, the TC AND front diff were completely destroyed ( i did however, find out that the truck is AWD and not 4WD, an error on my part), a motor mount was loose (his "helper" couldnt get it out, so he just left the bolts loose), it was 3 qts low on oil, because his "helper" cracked the drain plug gasket, they also removed the ground i had installed for the TC ( a tip for anyone who uses silicone instead of the OEM gasket between the TC and transmission, always add a secondary ground to one of the bolts that hold the TC to the transmission, and connect it somewhere on the frame. Some vehicles, especially Ford's, have a metal based rubber coated gasket due to how the TC and transmission are grounded, and, without the OEM gasket, can cause issues, especially with the TC. No, silicone wont hurt it, as long as you remember to add the secondary ground wire, and clean the bolt the wire is connected to (I always run that bolt in, tighten it, then take it out, and do that a couple times, to remove any silicone from the threads the bolt screws into. Always wait to do that after the silicone has set for at least an hour though)), as well as a bad VSS, and, remarkably, somehow they managed to also loosen the starter, so that it made a bit of a grinding noise. (Ok, so, yes, i was a bit bitter, and still kind of am about this one, since all he would have originally had to do was bring it back to me to fix a simple issue with the front diff, and, instead, he caused all these other issues, that i got stuck fixing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Moses Ludel Posted August 13, 2017 Administrators Share Posted August 13, 2017 I wonder how many troubleshooting nightmares have been created by bad or insufficient grounds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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