4Lo won't engage. Neither will center diff lock. V8 4wd.

[Moist]

Just got some heavy snow here. I needed to get up a decent hill so I put it into neutral and toggled from 4hi to 4lo.
It just blinks, sometimes you can hear the actuator, but it remains blinking on the dash.
The center diff lock does the same thing.
Anyone else had this issue?

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[aemravan]

sounds like you have a Moist actuator.. (sorry.. found your username punny in regards to the issue you have)

On a serious note.. when was the last time you used your actuator? One of the major issues is "if you don't use it you lose it" with these things. Not saying you're in that boat.. but if that is the case where you haven't engaged it in a long, long time, it could be worth trying it a few more times on level ground, and potentially giving the actuator a few light taps to see if it'll unstuck itself.

If this is something that has been working not too long ago, there's a chance that it may be at the end of it's life and will need replacing (in which case I urge you to look into the FJ cruiser T-case swap)

 

[Moist]

sounds like you have a Moist actuator.. (sorry.. found your username punny in regards to the issue you have)



On a serious note.. when was the last time you used your actuator? One of the major issues is "if you don't use it you lose it" with these things. Not saying you're in that boat.. but if that is the case where you haven't engaged it in a long, long time, it could be worth trying it a few more times on level ground, and potentially giving the actuator a few light taps to see if it'll unstuck itself.



If this is something that has been working not too long ago, there's a chance that it may be at the end of it's life and will need replacing (in which case I urge you to look into the FJ cruiser T-case swap)

Thanks for the response!
I drive around a parking lot once a month in 4LO. (Worth noting that the pervious owners never used it. )
It acts fine when it works. I just tried it again today after a drive and it shifted and ran perfectly. (Although I didn't test the center diff)
It has gotten stuck before, my center diff lock got stuck a while ago and only unfroze itself when I put it in reverse and drove for a bit.
I'm not quite sure what is is, but I'll keep testing out the 4LO and center diff lock.

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[xtremewlr]

Thanks for the response!
I drive around a parking lot once a month in 4LO. (Worth noting that the pervious owners never used it. )
It acts fine when it works. I just tried it again today after a drive and it shifted and ran perfectly. (Although I didn't test the center diff)
It has gotten stuck before, my center diff lock got stuck a while ago and only unfroze itself when I put it in reverse and drove for a bit.
I'm not quite sure what is is, but I'll keep testing out the 4LO and center diff lock.

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It's possible the seals for the actuator shafts are leaking into the actuator box, allowing gear oil to get in there. This happened to my original tcase and was one of the reasons I did the FJ tcase swap. It wasn't worth the cost nor effort to try and repair the OEM tcase. I may have lost the locking center diff but I never have to worry about my tcase failing due to poor design.