I recently bought a truck that I thought was too good of a deal to pass up. It's a 92 F150 4x4 extended cab with a five speed and a 4.9L straight six. Truck is in pretty good shape, but does have a few issues, and I'd like some help with the most puzzling/frustrating.

I cannot possibly put this pig into 4-low. I pulled on the lever so hard the **** came off. Pulling the switch into high gear is quite tough, but not impossible. Your average girl may not be able to do it, it's that hard. I had the tranny out of gear, truck in 4-high, clutch to the floor board, and could not move the damn lever back to save my soul. I even got out the owners manual to make sure I was following the proper procedure and no dice. I checked the fluid in the transfer case the day before, and it was a touch low, but nothing I felt I needed to be too concerned about. I would've added some, but I didn't have any Mercon. Only had Dexron, and felt it would be best not to mix.

Normally, I wouldn't be too upset about not being able to get into 4-low, but I was stuck in 4-high in some greasy mud. I couldn't get in touch with anyone to try to pull me out, so it cost me $200 to get a tow truck out there. It was 9pm on a Sunday night, and I needed the truck to get to work in the morning.

Does anyone have any ideas why I can't get to 4-low? The furthest back I can get the lever is 4-high.

Any help would be appreciated. If you need any further info, please don't hesitate to ask. I searched and came up empty handed.

 

If I remember right you have to push down on the selector **** to shift it. It has a lock to keep it from moving into the that position.

 

I tried to push down and pull at the same time, but I still couldn't do it. With as hard as it is to pull into 4h, I couldn't figure out how to push down hard enough while pulling back at the same time. When I was pushing down, I never felt it go anywhere, or release at all or anything. It was almost like I was trying to push and pull the frame rail because of how solid it felt. Going from 2H to 4H isn't a big deal, it just takes a fair bit of elbow grease.

 

Sound like the linkage under the truck might be rusted.
I think you need to go under with some PB blaster, WD-40 or something spray the linkage and work with it until it frees up.

 

I was under the truck the other day, and stuff had surprisingly little rust on them given the age of the truck and driving on salt seas we call roads in the Wisconsin winter time, but I really didn't inspect things that closely.

I'll give that a shot tonight. I'll probably have try to wash yesterdays mud off it before I do. I really like to try free stuff before I end up needing parts.

I'll reply back with results. Fingers crossed.

 

Mine is extremely hard to put into 4-lo and pushing down at the same time made it impossible to do. So I bent out the piece that makes you have to push it down. Now I can get my full force into pulling it back. Problem is though if you pull it back too far going down the road shifting into 4hi you hit the neutral and need to stop to put it back in.

 

The manual shift linkage on these trucks is notorious for seizing and breaking when it's forced... so stop before you do and drown that sucker in lube or better yet take it apart and grease the joints.

 

Well I sprayed a bunch of WD-40 on all the linkages that I could see without taking anything apart. The lever moves much more freely forward and back, but I still cannot seem to make the lever move down to get into and past neutral. I had my brother in the truck shifting, and me underneath observing, and the pin that holds the groves would not even come close to clearing the lip into neutral. I ran out of WD-40, so I wasn't able to lube as much as I would've liked. I thought about using some spray chain lube I have for the motorcycle, but because of the oily residue and fairly low penetrating properties, I didn't use it.

Since I'd need to go buy more WD-40 anyway, is there another spray that would be better suited? The earliest I would possibly have a chance to start taking stuff apart to clean and lube would be this weekend, and that may not happen because of all the other crap that comes up. If I can just roll under the truck and resolve this without wrenching, even if only temporarily, that would be nice.

I appreciate all your help so far.

 

I don't know about a '92, but on my '90 f-150 you do not have to push down on the shifter to go to 4L you have to pull the shifter towards the drivers side then pull it back to 4L. My '89 I used to have was the same.

 

pb blaster works sooooo much better than wd40 wd40 is like a pinto compared to a gt40 (blaster)

what i did was cut the detent out of the shifter to get mine into 4lo

 

Do yourself a favor and just cut that pin off i took mine out and got it to work two times in the past year wasn't working again so i cut off the pin sooooooo much better

 

I got some PB blaster, after almost forgetting about the stuff until I saw the can in the store. Sprayed the hell out of basically everything coming anywhere near the transfer case, let it soak, did it again, and it wont go down at all. I guess I will be taking it down to work on this weekend. I was thinking about just grinding the upside down V tab off or WAY down, but I'm still not sure I want to do that. I think that piece and what 1966Tbird called a detent are the same piece. I'd really hate to take all those pieces apart, cleaning, lubing and reassembling just to have it not work much better, or have this same problem a year from now.

This is my first 4x4 truck, but I know that it's not supposed to be anywhere near that hard to move the shifter. I've driven them before, and used 4lo on a manual shifter, and it was like a stroll in the park compared to this.

I only imagine using 4lo a couple times a year as a last ditch effort at getting out of a slippery situation before getting out and shoveling or whatever.

I read about other folks problems with the transfer case not wanting to stay in the gear they put it in, and it doesn't sound like any fun either. Before I cut the pin or grind the detent off, I just want to make sure I'm not going to have problems with it slipping out of gear.

I'm not the least bit concerned about selling the truck, because as with all my vehicles, I plan to drive this until it's not worth fixing anymore. At least another 100,000 miles I'm hoping.

What do you guys think? Cut the pin off, grind the detent, or disassemble clean and lube and hope for the best? Or if anyone else has an idea not mentioned, feel free to toss your hat in the ring.