Hi everyone. I have a 6.0 F250 so I normally hang out in the diesel forums, but my girlfriend just bought a 2005 Mountaineer Premier Edition this Saturday, and we noticed something a little strange that I've never seen or heard of before. The dealer she bought it from is a friend of ours, and when he ran the VIN, he said it showed up as an AWD. However, I looked up underneath, and no transfer case?! However, I'm not very familiar with the inner workings of AWD like I am regular 4WD, but I did know that there would have to be something going into the back of the hub to power the front wheels. When I looked there, I saw that the back of the hubs were hollow, as if something had been there before, and there was a hollow tube about 2" or so in diameter that went across the front of the car that something was obviously running through that isn't there now, and the tube stops about a foot from the back of the hubs and points directly at the hubs. The last thing is the back of the transmission where the driveshaft connects. It looks as though it's been modified, and some adapter has been added to compensate for no transfer case. I'll post pics as soon as I can, but in the mean time, I figured I'd post and see if anyone had any ideas without pics. But has anyone ever heard of any problems that these systems have that would have caused the previous owner to want to just get rid of it?

If it's not too expensive, we would also be interested in converting it back (although I realize it's probably going to be very expesive), so does anyone know about a rough estimate about what it would cost?

 

might have had a transmission or transfer case faillure, and they decided to save money by installing a 2 x 4 trans?? or is it a 4 x 4 and the transfer case was removed (failed)?

 

the front hub bearings need a preload. if the stub shaft was removed, then they must have put a bolt and nut thru the hole and tightend it to hold the bearings together. take off the cap or cover over the wheel center, and look at the hole. there should be a 1 inch stud with a big nut on it, thats the end of the axle... you must have a bolt thru it??

 

I'll check it all out the next time I get a chance. Like I say, all the stuff I saw was simply at a glance with no real in-depth investigating.