Stuck in 4WD

[solent_surfer]

For a few weeks now I've been scratcing my head about my 96,3rd Gen,5 gear manual surf being stuck in 4wd. I thought the car might just be getting confused and actually 'not' be in 4wd, but you can feel it on cornering.

I was told to check the vacum hose, but the only hose to the electric motor connects to the top of the gearbox which seems ok. I have taken the motor off and checked it and all seems to be working ok.

I'm worried it may be a gearbox problem but I want to see if I can at least find the problem before it comes to suggesting that the my local friendly garage!

Any ideas would be appreciated because something tells me that it's not just the increased consuption I'm going to have to worry about before this is diagnosed and fixed.

As far as I know, the 4wd is not controlled by a vacum system like on the 2nd gens, but is controlled by an electric motor which is, in turn, controlled by a rotating disc within the motor unit at the back of the gearbox. The disc has metal circuits on it which come in to cotact with brass pins which seem to tell you what the positiion of the disc is. This seems to be what controls the lights on the dash and the relays on the system.

Please help if you have any ideas

[solent_surfer]

this must be a new one then ...... looks like it's a trip to the yota garage

cheers for lookin though

[stormforce]

have you tried dis-connecting the batteries to reset the ecu to see if that helps at all.I'm not good on electrical stuff on cars but it may help

[solent_surfer]

I reset the ecu about three weeks ago cos a Toyota tech guy said to do the same.. No use though but cheers anyway fellah

[crasin]

does the 3rd gen not have a 4wd drive button on side of high/low gear? if so then there is a 4wd ecu behind the centre consol below stereo try unpluging that and drive forwards few feet.

I have 1st generation and mine is on all the time so just unplug box and when need 4wd just plug it back in i beleive its a faulty switch

Crasin

[TonyN]

Is the dash light light telling you its in 4wd, or you just think it feels like it is?

Easy way to tell is look at the prop shafts while someone drives it forward slowly.

[solent_surfer]

It is showing as 4wd on the dash and it deffinatly feels as if in 4wd. Diff is not locked as no scrunching on a tight circle.
The button is on the side of the High./Low gearstick. when i press the switch to the 2wd position I can hear a click under the car as it tries to dis-engage but usually there are two clicks as it dis-engages and locks in to the 2wd position. As it is not clicking the second time and only doing half the job, the dasb light flashes on and off indicating that it's not in 2wd.
Whilst the light is flashing I can fo back and forth ok but if I try turning you can feel that the centre diff is locked as the wheels fight, as if i was in Low/Locked.

I'll have a look behind the dash like you suggested crasin to see if that'll work.

All drive shafts move together when going forward whether it in in 4wd of flashing, What do you rec?

Could something in the gearbox stop the pin from dis-engaging the front prop shaft? If so, what?