I have a 2002 4x4 f150 4.6l auto trans with a manual 4x4 shift lever. When the truck is cold and I shift the lever for 4h nothing happens. The dash light doesn't light and it's obviously not in 4 wheel. After warming up a bit, driving > 15 mins I can then shift in and out on the fly normally. This is a real problem for me since I have a really steep driveway and when it snows I'm SOL in 2 wheel.

Anyone else experience this?

Thanks.

 

Your in the wrong forum, but it sounds like you need to service your actuator. Your solenoid air lines run to it on your front axle. You use a vac tool (30 bucks or so @ your auto supply or $6 for a brass one @ Harbor Freight) to engage and disengage while connected to the actuator itself while lubricating.

This gallery shows me doing this -

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...intenance.html

BTW- the Ford diagram in this gallery is backwards, Ford got it wrong, the connections are opposite.

 

hey Jbrew,

excellent info, especially with the pics. Now I have somewhere to start looking. I'll let you know how I make out.

BTW - why am I in the wrong forum?? 2002 F150? We're in the 1997 to 2003 F-series category or am I missing something.

Thanks again.

 

Yea let us know, the right forum is here -

https://www.f150online.com/forums/other-powertrain-15/

 

Mine won't disengage. What is the blackpart in the pics? I'm trying to diagnose my problem as well.

 

That's the actuator your referring to I think? You can copy the pic to your desktop and open it up in paint , - circle what your referring to , then paste it here to be sure.

 

OK, so I finally got around to crawling under and finding the actuator. I removed the splash shield and manually slid the lever and it seemed to move easily enough. Should there be detented positions or just a smooth sliding action?

I'm not sure how to diagnose if it could be something else. I slid the rubber boot off and sprayed a little penetrating oil on the piston but moved just as easily afterwords.

I then test drove and not surprisingly it engaged 4Hi when I moved the shift lever since it was warm from being in the garage. I then shifted back to 2WD and the 4WD light stayed on. From the sound and feel, it definitely wasn't in 4wd so I'm not sure where the problem is. I'll replace the actuator if that's the likely problem but I'd hate to throw 100$ at it and have it not be faulty.

Thanks in advance.

Fish

 

Nah don't do that, -jack her up on all fours, so there's no binding. Have an assistant engage and disengage while your down under, - it may help, could direct you to the problem anyway.

IMO:

Air leak in actuator vac line or bad 2wd solenoid on the firewall by the battery.

Good Luck.

 

I started a new thread in the area you mentioned I should be posting in, the link is below:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/ot...-guidance.html

This is starting to really confuse me due to the various odd symptoms. I checked the vacuum lines to each solenoid and they both hold manifold vacuum just fine so no air leak. The strange thing is I'm now having more trouble getting in to 2WD than in to 4WD now, since I manually moved the actuator.

The Blue solenoid (4WD sol right?) is always pulling a vacuum no matter which position the shift lever is in. If I unplug the wiring to that solenoid the vacuum shuts off. I then connected a vacuum pump to the Pink line and pulled a vacuum on that line but the indicator still remained in 4WD. What causes the light to change state? The CPU?

I'm getting concerned that this might more likely be a shift fork issue, anyone know what those symptoms would be? I haven't checked the actuator position change with the vacuum pump yet, could it hold a vacuum on each side but still be faulty? I'll be checking that soon but we're getting snow so crawling under the truck will have to wait.

Thanks again and happy new years.

-- fish