4wd Not Working

[daz1215]

Thought I would post this as it may help someone. After reading all the avaliable information, website forums, tech sites, on this site and the Aussie one was at a end. Press the 4wd button and the light flashes on the dash and no 4wd, just a buzzer. After testing everything, had vacum at the accumilater, had vacum at the solinoid switches, as well as power, they switched over when the button was pressed, had vacum at the axle ADD, the transfer box motor worked, and had vacum at that as well. Was at a empass, and going out of my mind trying to figure it out. Was under the front axle trying to gently persuade the ADD yoke to engage when I noticed a unpluged multiplug. This is not normal as the japs do not normally leave things like this. The multiplug is by the nearside front wheel just behind the rubber flap, plugged this in and hey presto the 4wd now works. This must have been done in japan as i bought my surf direct from the import auctions. On another note if your speedo works but the km's do not clock up and you have the all electronic speedo do not bother trying to fix it, a small electric motor drives the wheel which turns the numbers, this siezes, but if you try to take it apart, as I did you break the 4 small wires that drive the speedo itself and like mine now nothing works, they put two one way snap clips between the electronics and the manual turning wheels. On the overheating problem if you keep a eye on the gauges, and when it starts getting hot, turn on the rear passenger fan, and in hot weather open the rear window this helps cool the engine down, but if you lift off the gas pedal a little so the turbo light goes out the engine cools down anyway. Changing the antifreeze to uk spec helps. I hope this helps someone

[MattF]

Cheers mate. Every bit of extra info for the archives helps. Welcome to the forum, BTW. So how are you liking the Surf upto just? They're addictive beasts, ain't they.

[nero279]

Had the same with the multiplug you describe on mine, the 4wd does engage with this out, but only if you are stationary in 'D'. It's nice to have it back on the fly and have a light that tells you it's in 4wd aswell though.

Welcome

[dirtydog]

maybe i should look for this as mine wont engage unless im stationary.

[nero279]

Trace the cables back from the front diff, they should go over to the left side of the engine then up, the multiplugs pretty much where the front of the n/s torsion bar is. If you can't see a plug at all let me know and i'll have a look again then give a better description of where it is.

[dieselboy]

wonder why the multiplug was unplugged? may be to stop accidental use of 4wd on tarmac?
i hate passengers that play with buttons