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i just bought a 2000 ford expy, and found that someone had disconnected the connector to the a4wd switch and that the wire and connector were missing. i pulled apart the dash and found a group of wires had been cut. i guess i have two questions, first these wires are run along with a set that are just below the selector switch and and connect with a grey wire connecting clip, behind the large plastic panel below the steering wheel. is there anyone that is familiar with this or the wires for the selector to help me find them, and the second question is does anyone even pose a guess as to why it was cut to begin with. it appears that the cut wires are almost long enough to get to the selecto switch, that and the absence of the connector is why i am guessing these are my missing wires. thanks for any help.
I suggest that you go to a Pick-N-Pull type of junk yard and locate the section of the harness and connector that matches your switch. Cut the harness and solder the wires and connector to your cut wire harness and plug it in to verify that your 4WD is going to work.
I suspect that there might have been a problem with the 4WD and a previous owner eliminated that function in a kind of crude way.
thanks for the reply, thats a good idea, and i will do that my next day off. my feelings are the same about why they were cut but i was told that since the a4wd works it wont be a problem with the transfer case, any ideas or input on that. again thanks.
fixed it today with a new connector, retrieved from local junk yard, and at this time the 4wd seems to work fine. good news, but still a nagging question of why cut in first place.
So the whole 4WD, A4WD, 4LOW switch was disconnected, or just the A4wd wire? On other Ford forums, I have seen a lot of reference to cutting the wire to the A4wd, for vehicles that don't have the 2wd option. I believe it's called the "brown wire mod".
the entire pig tail was gone and cut. and doing this does not stop the a4wd from working, i had it in the air on a lift and the a4wd did work, as it should, just no 4wd hi and lo.
The "Brown wire mod" is a good thing if you want to disable the A4WD function only. I have yet to do mine but will soon. There is no reported economy gain, only supposedly less friction in the front axle system and more control on black or glare icey roads. I tested mine by pulling the #104 fuse and it seemed to work fine in 2 WD.
His system is fixed now and will hopefully stay that way. Or we will probably hear from him again.