A few days ago I was parked in lose gravel so I put it in 4 wheel drive before I stoped so that I could get out easily. When I left it was no problem as the 4 wheel drive was engaged fully. When I got on the pavement i was going about 10 MPH and disengaged the 4 wheel drive, instead of a click and the feeling that the front 2 wheels disengaging, instead my truck felt like it was being held back more and more and then THUNK! the 4 wheel drive poped!

Scared the crap out of me thinking ok I just killed my 4 wheel drive.... So I slowed down re-engaged the 4 wheel drive and it came on fine, turned it off with no problem. Did this twice with no issues.

My guess is that something got bound up and something had not totally disengaged. I don't know if I should have it looked at as it seems to be working fine. I still have 12,000 miles left of my 36,000 mile warrenty.

Also has anyone else had this happend to them on any Ford with the 4 wheel drive?

 

The front differential is a tad bit lower (higher ratio) than the rear so when engaged, it does most of the work. The 'slow' you felt was in fact the front axle holding back the back axle. If it hadn't released when it did, you would possibly have twisted a drive shaft. I believe if you read your owners manual, it emphasized that when shifting in or out of 4 wheel drive, you must be stopped.

 

You should be able to go in and out of HIGH 4x4 anytime up to 55 miles an hour with no prblem. You cannot shift into LOW 4x4 unless you are Nuetral with the brakle on. You may have had it in a bind due to turning or something. I have had mine pop in and out of LOW, but high has always been pretty smooth.

 

You can shift in and out of 4W High anytime up to 55MPH according to many and I belive the manual says the same, in the older 4x4s you could engage it at up to 55 but had to stop and back up about 15-20 feet to disengage it.

I was not flat and had my front tires turned a bit so I may have caused a little bit of binding. I will see if I get any issues next time I go offroading. Oh yes and I don't go by myself so If theres a big problem I won't die out in the middle of the desert...

 

Sounds like the system was bound up when you tried to disengage it.

Don't worry about twisting a driveshaft. Very unlikely. If that was a possibility, I would have had to replace my shafts many many times. I sometimes use a boat ramp where you have to turn the wheel hard over to the left to clear the turn at the top of the ramp. We do it in 4x4 all the time. Everybody does. Lots of tire scrubbing, but nobody has dropped a shaft. Not even the guys with GM and Mopar pieces of junk.

The tires will loose traction way before your shaft breaks.

 

i believe the "backing up bit" in older 4x4s was just to release the hubs since there is no sense in driving around with the hubs engaged when you aren't in 4wd...

newer systems disengage the hubs as soon as you take the truck out of 4wd...

 

Yep exactly, of cource if you want the best 4 wheel drive system you would need something like air lockers. Or what the heck just get a hummer, but then there a little hard to park and you would be drving a General Motors.

Better yet get a Land Rover a Ford Motors company and much more stylish and bitchin offroad, for those few that get to "borrow" it from there wife...

 

It is very easy to bind up the system and not even know it.. Now, you can bind it up to point that wheels won't even move, but you have to work hard to get this far gone.. The bucking is the same thing as binding but it takes a lot to get the "bound up" point where you can't move. I had a locker in my old Cherokee and it was quite easy if you weren't careful... Too much traction can be a bad thing. LOL

Sometimes just cutting the wheel a little in the opposite direction of the previous turn will allow the system to acquiesce or nuetralize itself and eliminate the energy that has stored up..

My suggestion is to to engage and disengage while off-road, or if you do engage on-road, do it when you can continue travelling straight after you reach off-road. Also, if it is wet, it is better, a dry paved surface is the worst thing for X-Fer cases and four-by systems...

Just my .02..
Chris (ReelWork)

 

Thanks Reel, sounds like a good explination, makes sense for my little happening.