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97 Explorer XL clunk and 4WD issues

Howdy folks.

Having a bit of an issue with my wife's 97 XL(control track). As a preface, this whole 4WD/auto tranny thing is a bit out of my experience, I'm used to manual trannies, small cars, and motorcycles.

Just for a bit of history, we had a new transmission put in about 2 months ago(the O/D was disengaging after 45 minutes or an hour of driving, solenoid, clutches and various other parts were bad-probably due to towing with O/D engaged amongst other things).

The tranny seemed to have been working nicely with no problems until this weekend. We were at a campground, it rained pretty good, so I put the selector into 4WD Low(perhaps foolishly), just in case. The 4WD indicators just blinked(its on the 2 minute/6 blink pattern) so googling past posts, that looks to be an axle sensor or the GEM module. The part thats got me worried now is that in low speed, tight right turns, we get a horrific clunking/shuddering. I did manage to drive it in to work this morning without experiencing the clunk, just by being a bit smooth and careful.

Are these two things likely to be related, or am I looking at bad sensor/gem AND bad u/cv joints or something like that? Any opinions on whether this might be covered under "transmission" troubles(thus warrantied) at Aamco?

TIA

Reply to
entropy_magnet
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In the '97 and later versions of Control Trac, when you select either

4WD-Hi or 4WD-Lo the transfer case clutch pack is engaged continuously to lock the front and rear drive shafts together. This should only be used in poor traction conditions or going straight ahead as when the truck turns, the rear wheels go a shorter distance than the front and since the axles are locked together, something has to give! Either the wheels drag on the ground or something breaks or pops in the drive train. Shouldn't be trying that! In 4WD-Auto, the clutch pack in the transfer case is periodically pulsed to close, allowing drive line bind-up to be quickly relieved, and that engagement time is regulated by the GEM looking at the relieve speeds of the front and rear drive shafts. If the rear is going faster than the front, for example, it must be slipping so increase the clutch engagement time in 10% increments until the speeds match or the front is going faster than the rear.

The flashing lights mean "something" is wrong in the automatic system (usually a bad speed sensor or electrical connection, worst case a bad GEM or clutch pack), or low range is not getting engaged (bad limit switch or motor or just stuck). In the failure mode, the 4WD-Auto reverts to 2WD, only, but I believe you still engage and lock the clutch pack in the other positions. Sounds like you may have a problem with the Auto system (which is designed to handle rain and wet streets and such), but the rest "was" OK. Hopefully nothing vital broke during that experiment.

=Vic= Bear Gap, PA

entr>

Reply to
Vic Klein

Vic Klein wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@ptd.net:

Swung by Aamco yesterday, They pulled the test drove it and pulled the codes from the transfer case(transfer case needs service and several failure codes stick in my mind), and said the transfer case was probably fried, or at the least the motor in it. Not having the 1600 they quoted me as probable, I took it home and disconnected the battery to reset the fault states, as well as the 4wd engage command(I suspect). This has made the symptoms go away for now, though I will be checking sensors/GEM etc, soonest, and babying the truck until then.

Thank you for the input.

Reply to
entropy_magnet

AAMCO has a very poor reputation. If I were you (admittedly, I'm not), I'd check with a local tranny shop if i could.

Reply to
Bill Funk

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