I need help on my 2004 F250. Just got about 6 inches of snow. I use this truck to plow my private road. A few other residences on the road rely on my plowing.

I usually use 4WD Low and gear 2 on automatic transmission to plow. Hub manually locked. But today, when I shifted to 2, and pressed on the gas pedal. The truck was not engaging to drive, as if it were in park or neutral. And when I tried to shift to park, there is grinding noise and wouldn't allow me. I had to turn off the engine to be able to shift to park.

When I manually freed the hub and used 2WD High and gear D, I was able to drive the truck without problem.

Later, I tried using 4WD Low and gear D, and was able to drive a little distance before the truck no longer drives, and pressing on the gas is as if the truck was in park or neutral.

Please help. What is the problem? How can I fix this?

Previous to this earlier, I was driving down the private road to see how much snow we got. Without the plow on, I might have gone up to 10 or 15 mph, and still using 4WD Low and gear 2, maybe for 1/2 mile. Could I have damaged something by driving too fast in that setting?

Your help is much appreciated. I need to get the road plowed so that my husband and my neighbors can get in.

 

Do you have ESOF or manual 4X4 with the floor lever? If you have ESOF your transfer case was in neutral, that's why you could not put it in park, the shaft in the trans was still spinning, possibly a bad or sticking shift motor on T-case. If manual 4X4 you could have a binding linkage not allowing it to fully engage 4X4. In either case you could also have internal T-case problems, not very common, but possible. Have you tried 4X4 high to see if it locks into gear?

 

im with Jetjockey... we need a little more info... but also have to agree.. definately sounds like it got stuck in neutral..

 

Thank you for your reply, jetjockey99 and Sparky83!

It is manual 4X4 with the floor lever. I was able to put it in 4WD High. And later when I shifted it to 4WD Low, it was working. I am not sure whether the problem is intermittent (with binding linkage or internal T-case problem), or maybe I just didn't shift into 4WD Low securely?

Any thought?

 

manual t-case and manual hubs sounds like you werent fully into gear then.. i found in mine the dash indicator will sometimes come on before the tcase is fully engaged.. i often wish the engagement had a little more feeling to it but just feels like small bumps when shifting.

just to be sure.. when you couldnt get it to shift back to 4hi was the transmission still in gear? or did you have it in neutral?? book states going between 4hi and 4lo it needs to be in neutral. but 4hi and 2hi can be done with it in gear..

 

Hi Sparky83, thanks for the reply. I always put the transmission in neutral when switching between 4hi and 4lo, as well as 4hi and 2hi.

 

no problem...

had a feeling you would have been in neutral but wanted to make sure.. id have to say sounds like you were stuck between gears in the t-case and was why you got the grinding sound when trying to shift to park on the tranny.. (that is if i re-read your first post right)...

as to the speed shifting... theres a few threads on here of people saying they are able to shift from 4hi and 2 hi up to 45.. supposedly ford doesnt recommend shifting it any higher than that.. so you should be fine with the 10-15 you were doing. ive done it before at 35 with no issues...

 

speed has nothing to do with going from 2 to 4wd hi range as long as the hubs are locked and you are not spinning a wheel, everything is moving at the same rate, it is just hard on the 4X4 parts to drive on hard surfaces with them engaged and most people don't drive 70 MPH on slippery roads where 4wd is needed.

 

unless you live in Alabama and drive a newer chevy truck. while I was working at the Chevrolet dealer I cant tell you how many trucks we had come in well towed in because the owner thought that when they needed 4x4 they could use it at any speed and would just turn the dial at 70mph and blow apart the front end. because they ran into ice and thought they didn't have to down. good job security for me but a bad day for the person that did it.

 

The manual 4X4 in a Ford Super Duty is different in how it engages than a Cheby. If the hubs are locked already all the parts in the transfer case are moving at the same speed and they will engage without damage, that said it is still not recommended that you shift it at high speed as it is not intended to be used at such, but unless a wheel is spinning it will lock in without blowing up. With Ford's ESOF and on the Chevy if 4X4 is not selected and the hubs are not locked ( on the Ford, Chevy doesn't have locking hubs as such) then nothing except the main shaft is turning in the transfer case and if engaged at high speed things can get real exciting, and expensive.