Like an idiot I never tried out the 4wd on my new 97 Dodge Ram CTD 2500 - until tonight. The truck works in 2hi, 4hi but it wont' even move if I put it in 4lo? WTF? Please help!

I tried fiddling with the linkage but it actually seems to be right and yet the truck does not move in 4lo. If I shift the tranny into park while the tc is in N or 4lo there is slight grinding sound that stays as long as the engine is running? I have told to try while rolling in N but that doesn't seem to do anything either. Any suggestions?

Like an idiot I never tried out the 4wd on my new 97 Dodge Ram CTD 2500 - until tonight. The truck works in 2hi, 4hi but it wont' even move if I put it in 4lo? WTF? Please help!

I tried fiddling with the linkage but it actually seems to be right and yet the truck does not move in 4lo. If I shift the tranny into park while the tc is in N or 4lo there is slight grinding sound that stays as long as the engine is running? I have told to try while rolling in N but that doesn't seem to do anything either. Any suggestions?

First off, don't shift the trans into park with the t-case in N. The trans is spinning since the t-case is N and what you are doing is essentially the same thing as shifting the trans into park while you're rolling down the street. The grinding you're hearing is the park pawl trying to engage, but can't because the trans is spinning.

Thanks for the heads up on that! So any suggestions on my 4lo issue?

put some of that veggie oil on it..:flipoff2:

OK. From what has been said, I think it is out of adjustment.

I say this, because when I got my jeep, it was acting the same way. granted, the jeep was a 231 tcase, but it was doing the same thing.

I put it up in the air on 4 jackstands, and tried the different positions of the shifter. None of them made sense - I could spin either d/s by hand when both should have been in gear.

I then disconnected the linkage from the tcase, and put it in gear.

I shifted it (carefully mind you) by hand AT the tcase, and everything worked as it should. You will probably need a set of channel lock pliers to shfit the lever by hand.

On mine, the linkage had slipped on the adjusting rods, and it was not giving me low range at all. After readjusting it, all was well.



ALSO, I had a fluid leak I could not find. So I was looking under it, and saw an inspection port behind the shfit lever on the tcase. The diagram at a friends trans shop showed a threaded plug being there, but there was not one we could see. So, we looked with a mirror and flashlight, and damn, you could see the gearing in the tcase move when you shifted it !! I had a 1/2" hole that was OPEN to mud & water !!!

I tapped it for a plug and put one in...my fluid leak was fixed.


What baffled me, was the hole that was supposed to be threaded had no signs of ever being threaded. We figure it had a rubber or press inplug that over time came out (it is an 88 XJ).




ANYWAY, I'd disconnect the shifter linkage for the tcase, and with it in the air on 4 jackstands and running, I'd shift the tcase by hand. You might just find it is out of adjustment like I did.

Just be careful since the shift linkage is very very close to the possibly spinning front driveshaft.