A friend bought a 7.3 Excursion about 5 years ago after being impressed with my 6.8 Ex and its handling of a boat on the highway. (He's owned several 7.3 vehicles.)

A couple of weeks ago he called asking me if I could give him a ride. His wife was out of town and there was something wrong with his Excursion. The rear-end appeared to have gone into lockup and he was afraid of creating a more-expensive repair by driving it around town.

He called one of our friends that's a long time Ford mechanic. Tom told him that it's probably just a case of the wrong grease in the rear end or the slip additive not having been added when the fluid was change. The plan was for Tom to come check it and either change the fluid or add the additive, but he was about to head out of town and it would be about a week before he could help.

Well, after days of sitting at home alone with no reliable transportation he decided to drive it up to the store anyway. He got in the Ex, turned the key to warm up the glow plugs, and after a few seconds started the engine. The dash lit up in the normal self test, with all of the lights going out except the 4x4 indicator.

It turns out he'd bumped the switch and it was between the 2wd and 4wd positions. That had somehow been enough to engage the 4x4 but not the 4x4 indicator. Moving the switch back to 2wd solved everything.

I had never heard of that issue and thought I'd share it with the forum....

~Bass

 

I've had it where I couldn't get it out of 4 lo because I forget to put it in park with the brake on....

 

Wow, that's a pretty hard switch to bump like that! Awesome that it wasn't the diff.

 

Free fixes are my favorite kind!

 

Whaattt? Why would you you put it in park and set the brake to get it out of 4-lo?

 

It has to be in park with the brake. pedal depressed to come in/out of 4lo on mine.

 

I hate to admit that I just realized I was driving my 250 with the hubs locked. Was changing the oil, laying under looking around, decided to check the tolerance on the front axles... Wouldn't turn. So, I drove it from Denver to Detroit running the front axle. Ugh.

 

Hubs locked but t-case not in 4wd wont damage your stuff. Many of us with vacuum issues drive all winter with hubs locked so we can just flip the switch for 4wd.

 

I know it won't damage anything but spinning the front diff 1400 miles could not have been good for mileage.

 

Eh it's pretty negligible. Don't let it bother you.