First snow day of the year here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and I've got a bit of a problem with my truck. Its 4WD has not been working for some months (don't have the money to have it looked at). Essentially, 4WD-High does not work at all. When I do put it in 4-Low, it gets stuck. That is to say, it'll engage and work normally, but I can't get it back out of 4-Low. Which is quite the problem when you're limited to 5-10MPH on a freeway.

Is there anyway I can crawl underneath and force it out somehow? Any tips that might help disengage 4-Low? At this point I'd rather be stuck with 2WD than this.

Its a 1990 F-150 XLT Lariat 4x4 with the E40D and the 5.8L. It has manual hubs and the 4WD is lever engaged, not push-button like the later models. And its worth noting that I can in fact pull the lever back into 4-High and 2WD, but that doesn't disengage it. Which seems to suggest there is some sort of disconnect going on between where the lever is and what the transfer case is doing.

 

try parking facing down hill, then put the trans in neutral, let off the brake slightly so the truck just begins to roll, then try to pull it out of low.

that is how I had to get my old 1356 in and out of 4low.

 

Damn. That requires crawling 5MPH to a hill. Best wait until late tonight to give that a shot.. Any idea whats wrong with it? It doesn't seem to be an issue with the transfer case as far as 4WD goes. When its in 4WD, it works just fine. Its the engaging/disengaging that is highly dysfunctional.

 

try just going down the road in gear at idle (SLOW SLOW) then pop the trans into neutral while rolling and try pulling it out.

the hill suggestion is just easier

 

could be the shift fork wear pads gone in it, same type a trans has.
item number 43, or something might have bend/damaged the linkage plate.

 

That info helped a lot. A mechanic buddy of mine said he was almost certain it was something with the shift fork. I'll give it a shot later this night with tips you've given me. If all else fails, there is no way to manually get it out? I have a 1980 F-150 and its got this big old cable underneath I have to manually adjust to change between 4 and 2WD, but I'm not seeing any such external linkage on my 1990.

 

I would get under there and get a good look at the linkage too, make sure it is clean and not compacted with crud.