2002 Ranger sticks in 4WD-Low

The gears get bound. Duh! (Sorry). You have to figure out the method of unbinding them.

In my old Jeep, I had to come to a stop, shift into R and let the clutch out a little, then push it back in then shift out of LO Range. I would suggest that you need to do the same, or a slight variation.

As you drive in LO, or in HI for that matter, the front and rear tires travel different distances, due to cornering mostly, that stresses the transfer case. (This is why you should NEVER drive on drive pavement in 4WD, by the way.) Since the tcase is stressed, then the solenoid that is pulling or pushing the fork that moves the gears around will stick, causing it to not disengage LO.

Try selecting R for a second so that the engine unwinds the drive train, then N so the tcase is unloaded, then HI.

The loading on the gears can be very high. My Jeep had a manual gear selector that I had to move by hand, and it could get so heavy that it would not move. I would have to use the engine and transmission to release the pressure on the transfer case.

THank you, I'll give this a try.

Also, they do shift better if they are shifted in and out of lock (low lock) frequently (say, even weekly.) Just do it on a DIRT or gravel road, or in snow.

The problem is that the gears are bound and cannot release. Your goal is to release the binding.

If you continue doing the same thing -- going straight -- the gears will not disengage. All you have to do is stop and roll back a foot or two sothe gear teeth are not locked together so tightly. It's possible that you can slow and shift into N then to HI and back to D and continue on your way. Since some of the binding comes from the engine-side of the drive train and some comes from the road-side, shifting into N will remove the engine influence and allow the tcase to shift from LO to HI. Since you are in LO when the problem occurs, you aren't moving very fast anyhow, so shifting to N should probably bring you to a stop anyway.

Thank you, I'll practice a few times when time isn't critical. It seems the HI-LO problen has random gremlins controlling it.

Bill

Thanks again. Bill

\ I was always taught that to get in and out of 4wd Low you had to be in neutral and stopped. I'm guessin' the being in neutral thing would be especially important on a vehicle with an automatic trans.

On my 92 Explorer (which may be a different system then the OPs) the biggest problem is that the electric motor that does the shifting stops working properly. They can be "fixed" sometimes or just replaced.

my 93 bronco had a problem with that motor / gearbox - switching into low i fixed mine - had to get anti tamper torques bit to fit the cover , ( iirc ) three small bolts , take that cover off and the gear has a round ?cog? that should have this small plastic bumper pad around it - the old pad i found in two pieces inside there. I cut a small piece of some good clear plactic tubing i had here pushed that onto that knob/ cog and bingo - been dandy for two years now.

That's the same thing I did on mine the first two times it stopped working. The third time I said "enough's enough" and I bought a new motor/cog-gizmo for about $125. So far, so good.