So I just wanted to give everyone my experience with the 4wheel drive on my 05 f150 FX4. After a long hard winter I noticed my 4wheel drive wasn't working anymore and I had a bad ball joint and tie rod end going so I decided to buy all new parts for the front end and get it all fixed up. Well when I had the front end jacked up in the air I noticed the activators for the 4wheel drive on the drivers side wheel was corroded and broke away from the hub. So I went and got new ones for both sides and a new switch that goes behind the battery. Well I got it all put back together and took it for a drive and I was getting that clicking from the front the hubs telling me it wasn't engaging all the way. So I checked the air vacuum at the hubs and It wouldn't even bring the gage up but at the line before the new switch behind the battery I was getting 12lbs. After checking the lines for brakes in the hoses and finding nothing I decided to tear the check valves apart to make sure they were working properly and found one of them packed full of dirt. Well after cleaning the dirt out and blowing though them everything is working perfect again. Just wanted to let everyone know that a little dirt can cause big problems when it comes to those lines of vacuum on the 4wheel drive!!! Hope this helps anyone who's having problems with the 4wheel drive.

 

It's always good to hear a repair story from beginning to end. Is there anything you would have done differently or in a different order? Did you do work that didn't need to be done to resolve the problem?

 

nice and proper troubleshooting

 

Well the only parts I really needed were 1 tie rod end, one lower ball joint and one 4wheel drive activator but i ended up getting everything, upper control arms, lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rods and both activators for the truck, so yes I did replace parts not needed but the truck has 120000 miles on it and figured it was time to do everything. This truck drives like its brand new again!!!! As far as the order it was done in, no I dont think I would have done it any different I did notice that my oil pan had a leak around the seal so thats my next weekend adventure I need to take care of and it doesnt look like its going to be a very fun job

 

Thank you!!