88 V6 Auto Trans & 4WD Stuck in 4WD....HELP!!

[Wowwzer]

I have an 88 T4R V6 EFI Auto Trans & 4WD, about 7" total lift 4" blocks in rear and about 3" body lift, stock gearing,IFS. All mods were done before i purchased this truck.

My problem is that this vehicle is now stuck or thinking its stuck in 4wd and this came about when I'm guessing i came off a stop position to quickly and the vehicle subsequently kind of jumped into 4wd. Now before this became stuck and would do this before this, I was still able to just pull over, slam the shifter down in L4 and back up and it would disengage and light would go off, though after one time, it seemed to not go away. Which only then did i really take a look at the underneath a noticed that the owner before me had done some kind of magyver to the shift linkage with wires being maybe they lost some bolts. Need i say that before it got stuck i was still able to disengage from 4wd with this setup. Though now it seems to be really stuck via the shifter now disengaging it.

I want to know that would there be a different bracket for the shift linkage to compensate for the body lift that is on the truck that would help with a smoother shifting and even disengaging from 4wd.

Ive been driving it since this has occurred as it is my daily drive though i removed the front drive shaft since it was only spinning and i served no purpose and the moment for it. I been searching a lot trying to find similar problems but decided to try and just start my own thread. I am not pro at automotice but still mechanically inclined to try my best at what i see.

Any feedback or help would be great, recommendations how where should try to look to fix. Feel free to ask question if you need more details.

Much Mahalo and Aloha

 

[KidVermicious]

Sounds like you already found your trouble, your previous owner monkeyed with the shift linkage to make it work with the body lift. Can you crawl under the truck and move the transfer case linkage on the transfer case into 2wd manually? If so your trouble is definitely in the linkage, you'll have to take it apart and find a way to rebuild it to make it work.

Dare I suggest removing the body lift? You'd be able to go back to the stock shift linkage. I'm not a fan of big body lifts or those huge lift blocks on your springs, they both seem like they end up causing more trouble than they're worth.

 

[Wowwzer]

Yea haha, as ironic as it sounds I guess that sounds like the problem though I did try to get underneath and pull in the shift linkage manually, but to no avail, it still seem to be stuck, and seems as though when I pulled down to the L4 position it would snap back or should I say "spring" back to the original position. As if it doesn't allow it to function all the way down properly. I'm no expert so it's really difficult for me to diagnosis the symptoms.

Yes I'm also not a fan of body mounts or blocks and want to eventually revert it back to the stock body height and go all suspension lift, being that I'm trying to get it able to get Recon. Do they sell and aftermarket shift linkage bracket to compensate for the body lift? I did notice that from the floor shifter to the bracket underneath that in was in a weird degree not allowing for a smooth transition, and it doesn't help that the underneath of this bracket is where they all did some mad scientist contraption with wire to connect the two.

Thank for the quick response! Aloha

 

[KidVermicious]

I'm not aware of a commercial bracket to accomodate the body lift, but it shouldn't be hard to get some aluminum from a scrap yard and fab one yourself, a drill and a hacksaw would be all you'd need.

I'm concerned that you can't manually move the lever on the transfer case into the 2wd position, though. Is that because the linkage is binding and pulling it back into the 4wd position? Try disconnecting the linkage entirely, and see if you can move the tcase lever into 2wd then. If not, you've got trouble in the tcase as well.

 

[Wowwzer]

Ok, I will try and disconnect the shift linkage assembly tomorrow(Hawaii time that's why) and see if I can't absolutely get it out of 4wd and engage 2wd. I hope and pray that it is just a bad linkage and a not a problem with my transfer case as well, for my knowledge is already limited to what I can read and search so anymore would make this more difficult haha. Though I appreciate all your help so far.

Any other wisdom and help from other is greatly welcomed and aprpreciated. Thank you!

 

[fourwd1]

If it does turn out to be the shifter linkage due to the body lift, check 4crawler.com.
He has an adapter that might help.
And 4" blocks is unwise.

 

[Wowwzer]

Ok here is where I stand, climbed underneath this morning, and tried to how te shift linkage worked with my girlfriend in the driver seat shift the gears. It did absolutely little to no movement at all. So I decided to try and do it from the underside manually, pulling forward to back seein if I could at least get it to stick in the L4 position and it still continued to pop/spring forward on its own. Though I still tried pulling and the way back and driving it forward quickly by hand.

Now it seems I've made it worse because I think it is actually in 4wd now, well atleast the motor is thinking and acting like it, which it wasn't before but the light was just on. Where should I start to fix this? Something atleast temporary to get the motor to run normal again? Sounds like my tcase is engage in a low gear or somethig?

Sorry if I make no sense at all, just trying to give a better idea of the situation

 

[Wowwzer]

If it does turn out to be the shifter linkage due to the body lift, check 4crawler.com.
He has an adapter that might help.
And 4" blocks is unwise.

Ok thanks, I remember seeing that adapter before but never could find it again, but I'll check up on that and will most likely pick one up so for now until I can remove the body lift. Yea Im no fan of the body/blocks but it was the vehicle itself that I wanted for when I fish I can sleep in it haha. Hopefully I can remove it soon. What do you recommend?

 

[KidVermicious]

Time to crack that transfer case.

You're on Hawaii? I don't know how the wrecking yards are there, but it might be time to find a used transfer case and just swap yours out.

 

[Wowwzer]

Well the good news is I was able to manually get the tcase out of 4wd by disconnecting the shift linkage and shifting it directly by hand. There appears to already have been some kind of shift linkage extension bracket but it doesn't
Look real heavy duty so I might go with the one from 4crawler. When I tried I connect the shift lever with the shifter linkage bracket, they didn't meet up good. So for now I left the shifter disconnected but left the gears in the position it should be in.

 

[fourwd1]

Glad you got it figured out. If you get linkage adapter that works there's no need to remove the body lift

 

[Wowwzer]

Glad you got it figured out. If you get linkage adapter that works there's no need to remove the body lift

yea lets hope that the linkage adapter will work, because as of right now if i want 4wd, i need to get underneath and do it manually. Just super stoked that nothing was wrong with my tcase:lmao:. As for the body lift, even if the linkage works with the body lift, in order for me to obtain Recon, the body lift need to be removed, now days getting a safety check is much harder get. Alot stricter and less places to go to.

Aloha & Thank you