Anyone good with suv's? Having a problem with the daily...

[Blasterdude27]

So I've been having a problem with my 99' trooper thats just getting worse, I doubt anyone knows but any help with troubleshooting would be awesome.


Today I was driving through a rutted up icey section of road ( in 4x4 ) and all of a sudden my front end goes *Crunch* and I'm sliding off the road and had very little steering control ( as in the wheels would barely turn ). Thankfully I was in town and was able to crawl/slide/push to a parking lot and stop.. I get out, everything looks good, took it out of auto mode ( part time awd system/auto hubs ) and tried backing up, wheels still locked up. So I turn it off and let it sit for a bit, then start it up and try and engage the auto drive, the TOD module keeps on flashing but doesn't engage, put it in drive and then it goes *crunch* and engages... drove it home 25 miles an hour and it did fine the whole way.

Whats going on here???

Bad hubs/ bearings?

Sticking calipers?

T- case going out?

Its been acting up for a bit now in both 2wd and 4wd, it grabs, jerks violently, I lose breaking power/ hit the breaks its fine. The problem is its only getting worse, especially after today..... I'm worried next time won't be so good.

The calipers and rotors seemed fine last time I had the wheels off. I'm almost convinced the abs is acting spastic ( Zoo's have CRAPPY abs systems ) since it always seems to happen on dirt roads or some other ruff terrain. Then again the previous owner said he ran it in auto drive the whole time he had it so I'm thinking the hubs are shot..... or worse yet the T-case....

I guess I'll be tearing into the front end this weekend......

 

[specialized7]

my guess is the t case, my buddy had similiar issues with a 4 runner.
Take out the front drive shaft and see how it does, but be warned it might roll in park

 

[4cfed]

tod as in torque on demand? aka tod clutch?? if thats the case its must be like the auto 4x4 explorers... and you dont have fornt hubs, its a live front end which means its always 'locked' but controled threw the transfer case.. now that i think of it if its got auto 4x4 is a tod clutch.. if thats the case.. its not in your transfer case, if its the tod you WONT have any 4x4 and you basicly have a 2wd truck..
sounds like something in the front end is binding, like the front differential gear set

 

[Blasterdude27]

tod as in torque on demand? aka tod clutch?? if thats the case its must be like the auto 4x4 explorers... and you dont have fornt hubs, its a live front end which means its always 'locked' but controled threw the transfer case.. now that i think of it if its got auto 4x4 is a tod clutch.. if thats the case.. its not in your transfer case, if its the tod you WONT have any 4x4 and you basicly have a 2wd truck..
sounds like something in the front end is binding, like the front differential gear set

Yeah its Torque on Demand. I thought even though its a live front end the hubs engaged/disengaged as directed by wheel slippage?

I don't know....

Anyways thats for the help! Guess I won't know until I take it apart.... yay

 

[4cfed]

there are no hubs to engauge and dissenguse, its all threw the tod clutch, and it works with the abs sensors and the driveshaft sensors,

when it reads the rear slips the tod clutch engauges(in the transfer case) and kick in the front driveshaft, i had a bad abs sensor on my explorer so i had the brown wire mod done, due to the sensor out it was always in 4x4, so the rbwon wire mod alowed for it to be in 2wd sinc eit shut off the tod clutch

 

[Blasterdude27]

there are no hubs to engauge and dissenguse, its all threw the tod clutch, and it works with the abs sensors and the driveshaft sensors,

when it reads the rear slips the tod clutch engauges(in the transfer case) and kick in the front driveshaft, i had a bad abs sensor on my explorer so i had the brown wire mod done, due to the sensor out it was always in 4x4, so the rbwon wire mod alowed for it to be in 2wd sinc eit shut off the tod clutch

Makes sense! Thanks for the info I:I

All this BS sure makes me appreciate my old solid axle truck.... ahh simplicity...

 

[4cfed]

no problem.. lol.. its a crappy set up but its nice when it works properly and pretty much only good for soccer moms, if someone wants to 'offroad alot' your better off swapping in the normal transfer case as its more reliable

 

[specialized7]

ah 4cfed the old trusty brown wire mod, my fav mod of all

 

[4cfed]

ah 4cfed the old trusty brown wire mod, my fav mod of all

who can complain about having 2wd low??? lol!!!

i loved it, 2hi 2lo 4hi 4lo and auto 4x4

 

[specialized7]

haha yep its fun thats forsure

 

[Blasterdude27]

Finally got a chance to work on it today, turned out to be the cv's.. The boots cracked and the grease dried out so when they would get hot they would lock up, and with them being engaged at all times it would happen all the time. So yay no major problem!

 

[brandoz28]

glad it wasn't anything too serious!


i would kinda like some kind of light snow beater lol

 

[Blasterdude27]

i would kinda like some kind of light snow beater lol

Me too lol 13 mpg sucks when you have to drive alot of miles and in very cold weather ( 30" studds don't help much either lol ) , I am going through loads of gas right now.
A AWD 4door car would rock.

 

[Awk08]

a 99 tropper only gets 13 mpg ????

 

[Blasterdude27]

a 99 tropper only gets 13 mpg ????

In the winter with studs thats about what I average (probably less sometimes). Summer time with some 31" m/ts I get about 16 mpg. The hardest part is all the idle time in the winter, there goes all your gas! But what are ya gonna do about it if you have no garage......

 

[Whitty21]

In the winter with studs thats about what I average (probably less sometimes). Summer time with some 31" m/ts I get about 16 mpg. The hardest part is all the idle time in the winter, there goes all your gas! But what are ya gonna do about it if you have no garage......

and you live in alaska................. hahahaha

 

[Blasterdude27]

and you live in alaska................. hahahaha

Yeah that automatically takes away 5mpg lol

 

[Awk08]

that just seems strange to me, hell back in the early 80's, i had a 71 monte carlo with a 402 big block that got 12 mpg, i guess i just assumed a smaller motored jap
suv would do better ????????

 

[Blasterdude27]

that just seems strange to me, hell back in the early 80's, i had a 71 monte carlo with a 402 big block that got 12 mpg, i guess i just assumed a smaller motored jap
suv would do better ????????

Yeah its really not too friendly on gas, I think its because its a little restricted in stock form, and with the front end always spinning, has a 12 bolt locker in the rear, 10 bolt up front and weighs close to 5k

Hell our plow truck with 351, f-ed up tranny, no 4th gear and a utility bed gets about 9 lol


I've got some small projects lined up for this summer, convert to manual hubs, new suspension with a small lift, new bearings, and a few little engine mods so its not so restricted. It should help improve the ride and mpgs quite a bit.