Oh Dear! Disaster!

[Scorpion]

Andy (Andy Enuf) came up this afternoon to buy the Surf and everything was going well until it came to putting it in low ratio. TBH it's something I've never done, not having done any major offroading, but when you put it into low ratio is it supposed to engage 4wd automatically?

It will engage 4wd off the button in high ratio but doesn't appear to do it in low ratio (well the light doesn't come on anyway). I'm at a loss and to say I'm gutted is an understatement. It doesn't bother me as I would never use it anyway but it's off putting for prospective buyers. Can you guys give me any indication what might be wrong?

Sorry if I'm being a bit vague but I'm upset that this has happened and that I've wasted someones time. If I can give any more info which would help diagnose the problem please let me know.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[stormforce]

Jim Try the gear selector in P and N and then try to put into 4wd on the lever.You may need to moved to/from a bit and keep trying it for it to engageIf you can park on a bit of a hill then try to engage the lever by letting the truck roll a bit to see if it engages

[Scorpion]

Thanks Richard, it is now starting to engage. The thing is I've never tried to engage low gear in the four years that I've owned the truck so I would imagine it's just a bit sticky. The more I try it the easier it gets, it now selects 4wd when low gear is engaged but sometimes the 4wd light flickers on and of and it sound like a relay or solenoid is buzzing.

On relection I should have tried the hi - lo lever beforehand but to be honest it never crossed my mind. I'll continue using the lever every day now just to make sure that it's operating okay.

Would having the body lift done make it difficult to engage low gear as the lever doesn't seem to want to go any further forward?

[stormforce]

if its 2" bodylift then almost deffinately that would cause the problem.Just take the centre consol section out and trim back the rubber and metal of the tunnel and the coverplate until it engages easy.About 30 mins and it should be perfect
If you just strip the consol out then you will/should see where the lever is actually catching the metalwork and then trim that out a bit and also a bit of the rubber thats there also

[BUSHWHACKER]

if its 2" bodylift then almost deffinately that would cause the problem.Just take the centre consol section out and trim back the rubber and metal of the tunnel and the coverplate until it engages easy.About 30 mins and it should be perfect
If you just strip the consol out then you will/should see where the lever is actually catching the metalwork and then trim that out a bit and also a bit of the rubber thats there also

A bodylift shouldn't affect the low range position Rich, it's the 2H position you usually need to trim the surround i.e. the lever won't pull back toward the seat.

I think Jim's problem is just lack of use. the same problem I had with Lexurf III, the lever didn't want to move into L4 until I squirted a load of WD40 around the the pivot and gave the lever a good rocking back and forth.

[jotto]

A bodylift shouldn't affect the low range position Rich, it's the 2H position you usually need to trim the surround i.e. the lever won't pull back toward the seat.

I think Jim's problem is just lack of use. the same problem I had with Lexurf III, the lever didn't want to move into L4 until I squirted a load of WD40 around the the pivot and gave the lever a good rocking back and forth.

As stormy says, It is l4 that causes a problem after a body lift, you need to trim a bit out of the tunnel to allow the selector to move forward enough to engage properly.

[Scorpion]

Cheers chaps! I knew it would be nothing major and the body lift seemed like an obvious cause.

I knew I would find the answer here.