I am thinking about doing the brown wire mod on my 2001 navigator, I do not like how it feels if I step on the gas to hard and I do not think it is good for the t-case. I have a couple of questions first, if I do the mod will it prevent the t-case from being burned up if my front tires had more wear than the rear? I do not plan on doing burn outs but if I did happen to stomp on the gas and I did burn out would it hurt the t-case. I popped off the still plate on the drivers side and there here is what I found.


I am not sure what wire is the correct one I have read a lot of posts that say the wire is tan so I am not sure.

the first picture is of the two wire harnesses I found one big harness and one small harness







this is in the big harness it is a dark brown wire




this is in the big harness it is a light brown wire with white stripe





this is in the small harness it is tanish brown with a yellow stripe





this is in the small harness its is tanish brown with white stripe

 

Has anyone on here ever done the brown wire mod on an expedition or navigator?

 

You're looking for a plain brown wire within the group of wires that connect to the transfer case, no tracer on it, and no tan wires.

 

can it be located behind the radio by the 4x4 selector?

 

You can find it there but it's more difficult. There are two modules, the transfer case shift relays and the torque on demand relay, that the brown wire each comes out of. The brown wire then splices together and goes to a connector in the passenger kick panel, then onto to the transfer case. To do the mod correctly, it's important to cut into the brown wire after this splice. To be safe, find and cut into the brown wire at the 12 pin connector down in the passenger kick panel. The one you want is pin 2, circuit 779 in the connector shown in this picture.

 

Thank you very much alloro that pic and info help a ton!!! just to make sure so I do not screw anything to a very nice navigator, I have one more question. I should take the wire connected to the side with the splice and run it to a terminal on the switch and then connect the other wire to the other terminal. is this correct? I should not need to use a relay should I? I saw a thread where a guy used a relay when he did it to an explorer but he used a lighted switch.

 

I suspect he used a relay because the fuse for this circuit #104 is 30-amps and he didn't know the circuit very well, or the switch he wanted to use wasn't rated at least 5 amps. That fuse also powers the shift motor and other portions of the circuit. The clutch coil inside the transfer case is supposed to test less than 5 ohms to ground, which means it should only draw at most 5 amps. As a result, you can use a 12VDC switch rated as little as 5 amps if you so chose.

Here a diagram of how to wire a lighted switch. Try and get one with an LED instead of a bulb. They have less heat and the LED lasts 1,000s of times longer. If you do not want a lighted switch, then eliminate the ground portion of the switch.

 

thanks again alloro, you are the man!!! I may not get a lighted switch cause it would probably annoy me being lighted up at night

 

I wouldn't think it would be any more annoying than any other dash light. But keep in mind the light is only on when the switch is on. It's an ON indicator light, not an illuminate the switch so you can see it at night type of light. Plus if you go with an LED it's more a point of light and is not very noticeable. But do what suits you best, it's your truck and you're the one driving it.

 

ok, will the light be on when the awd is off and light be off when the awd is on? or the other way around? I will mostly be driving with the awd off if I do this mod unless there is snow, ice or bad rain.

 

According to the above diagram...if the switch is off, both the light and the AWD will be off. If the switch is on, both the light and the AWD will be on.

 

Ok alloro, I found the brown wire today. I just have to make sure I am doing it right before I make the cut, in the first picture should I cut where I have marked in red and thake where I have circled in blue and connect to the ACC on the switch and then take where I have circled in orange and connect to the power on the switch. Am I cutting in the right place or do I need to cut from the other side of the connector as shown in the second picture with the red arrow. thanks for all your help

 

1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
4. yes
5. no

 

I did the brown wire this weekend. Pulled the driver's seat and moved the carpet to find loom that heads to x-fer case (on my 99 it comes up between duct for rear heat/cool and the console). Spliced, routed wires up through the console (8 inches from splice). Installed switch in console on leading face of open well. Switched off and rear end on jack stands, the rear wheels spin in drive. Switched on, front axle pulls and tried to drive off jack stands.

The reason for that location is I've already modified that insert (cup holder and glove well) to accept my brake controller and Sirius mount. I fugure it's a cheap piece if I ever need to go back to stock.

 

I finally did the brown wire mod this weekend, I ran the wiring from the kick panel that alloro showed me. I ran it to switch inside my console next to my cd changer. I like the way if feels when I have the awd shut off, no more tires grinding if I go to fast around corners and such. I did not do this mod to do burnouts and cut cookies but I did test in dirt and the the rears spun and front did not, I do not want to do burnouts or get crazy in dirt though! this is the nicest car I have ever had and I do not want to screw it up! I am a little woried now that it might be hurting my navigator to have it shut off all the time, I mainly did this mod cause I read a bunch of horror stories of how if your front tires are off by the slightest in tread depth that it can burn up your transfer case. Does doing this mod eliminate these problems?