went out 4 wheeling today and my 4wd wouldnt engage. we got it to go into low range but it wouldnt engage the hubs, now we cant get it out of low range. had to drive home at 20 mph in 2wd low range.

 

Are you doing it right?
-put truck into neutral, foot on brake turn switch to 4H, when 4H light comes on turn to 4L and 4L should engage.
-to disengage, put truck into neutral, foot on brake, turn back to 4H until 4H light comes on then turn back to 2H. It should disengage

If not them something is wrong
Hope this is useful

 

well, i tried what u said and it didnt work. my dad was the one messing with it the day we went 4 wheeling and he knew how to work it so i think its something else. i think maybe the switch might be bad because i turned the lights on and the ones for the 4wd didnt come on until i tapped the switch. also, the "LOW RANGE" light isnt coming on.

 

I believe that when you put the shifter back into 2H that you have to put the truck in reverse and back up at least 10 feet to disengage the 4-wheel drive.

 

we tried that as well. i think its something else b/c at first it wouldnt even go into low range and when it finally did, it was only 2wd. its raining for the next couple of days so i cant work on it. luckily its not my turn to drive our carpool to the college.

 

well, i got a chance to work on it today. we checked all the fuses and none were blown. the harness going to the shifter motor was fine, the motor worked when connected to a battery. the selecter switch didnt look like it was messed up. we were able to shift it out of low range and back into 2wd high. we're just going to take it to our friend who is an ex ford mechanic who now owns his own shop.

funny thing, when we checked to fuse for my highbeams(since they didnt work) it wasnt in all the way. we pushed it in the rest of the way, and the highbeams worked, well so did the alarm lol. we couldnt turn it off because when my uncle owned the truck, he accidentally ran over the keypad . then the security system wouldnt let us start the truck. we we're able to get that taken care of with the reset button, and now its back to where it was before i went 4 wheeling. i just cant use the 4wd for now

 

Good luck with the ex-ford mechanic.
Hopefully he will be able to set you straight on the problem.

 

Is this still true? I thought this was only for the "older" style 4wd's. I don't do this is why I am asking. Hope I am not doing damage, I just thought this was no longer necessary with all the new electrical switching.

thanks for any info...

 

i think it was for the older ones. the 97 body style up you don't have to do this anymore.

 

I am not so sure about that. A friend of mine has a 99 F250 4x4 supercrew and he says he has to put it in reverse and back up, or spin the wheels long enough to disengage the 4x4.