4 WHEEL DRIVE ACTUATOR

[Gumball]

HELP!

My Trooper is locked in the 4 wheel drive mode. It still runs OK but I can't put it in 2 wheel drive. I disassembled the actuator and it doesn't make sense to me how it works. It has a small motor with a gear output but I haven't found what the motor drives??? If it had a matching gear it's nowhere to be found. What am I missing??

Gumball

[JGS UTVS]

GUMBALL

The actuator pushes a pin in and out to engage and disengage the four wheel drive.Make sure the gear is not stripped or the piece that pushes on the pin.is not broke.

[Gumball]

Thank you JGS,

The part that is puzzling is there isn't anything that fits against the small gear. The little motor is like something you would find in a toy car. Ah, the mystery deepens.

I'll look again to see where a pin could be.

Gumball

[ksimpsy]

pull the bigger looking top gray pice out and you will see the pin.

[brostar]

Gumball, the small motor drives the small gearing through two cogs that turns the final gear inside the black cylinder casing that drives the small locking pin that comes out directly underneath the black cylinder on the out side of the casing. See photo, it comes out of the blue hole. Photos are here http://community.webshots.com/album/570318331EsRryW . What happens when it fails is the shaft that goes though the black plastic cylinder lifts up and the final gear cog that engages it, just spins. The fix is as simple as pushing it back in. The probably cause is switching from 2 to 4wd on the fly pushing it up and out. Gumball, I've just remembered this locker is out of a Commando and will check if it is the same unit but I think so.

I hope this helps, Mike.

[JGS UTVS]

Gumball

The metal pin is in that little hole in the differential The small hole on the actuator with the o ring on it slides into the diff and the pin slides into the hole on the actuator.When you put it into the two wheel drive mode the actuator turns pushing on the pin holding the sleeve away from engaging into four wheel drive.Since you are stuck in four wheel drive you have to make sure there is power to the actuator and you can hear the motor.If you can hear the motor run make sure the plastic rod is not broke in the actuator.

[brostar]

Yep, it's the same unit and about 10 times easier to work on compared to the Commando.

Cheers Mike.

[brostar]

JGS UTVS, you are right about the possibility of it being stripped or even no power to the unit either way between us we should have it covered. Lets us know how you get on Gumball.

Cheers Mike

[Gumball]

Ho Ho it's off to Joyner I go! Thanks for all the good information. The pictures told the story. The guy that had the car before me must have had a problem. He took everything out of the actuator case except the little motor.

When I was at Joyner a couple days ago they told me they are looking at changing this arrangement to get rid of the electrical problems they must have had. I'll call Monday and see about getting a new unit. I hope I don't have to come out of retirement to afford it.

Thanks again for all your help. This is the finest forum I've ever been on. You people are AWESOME!

Gumball

[Lenny]

As far as I'm concerned, the four wheel drive actuator is a peice of junk. If you completely remove it, your

Trooper wil default to four wheel drive. The internal spring in the diff holds it there. the actuator pushes against the spring to disengage the four wheel drive. My actuator started acting up and my dealer got it working again. That lasted about 2 minutes after I got it home. So, I took the actuator off to see what the problem was. On the circuit board, there is a tiny limit switch at each end of the stroke. When the actuator actuates, there is a tooth pick size plastic finger that moves from one limit switch to the other. This little plastic finger is about as worthless as it can get. It flexes way to easy so if it isn't just right it don't work. I palyed with mine and I played with it. Finally I gave up and made a manual device to push the pin in or let it come out. Now It works always and it won't quit on me unexpectedly. The pics show what I did. The dash shot shows the new actuator lever on the dash.

Lenny

[Gumball]

Thanks Lenny,

It looks like you are on top of the Trooper problems. If it's OK with you I'm going to pass your information on to the engineer at Joyner that's working on upgrades. He and I talked about the actuator problem and he's looking into a mechanical setup to get rid of the electrical unit.

You can reach me on [email protected] if you'd like to avoid having to post messages on the board.

I'm really impressed with the group and how helpful they have been.

As an aside, what kind of a GPS are you using? I'm thinking of getting a Lowrance Globalmap 840C. My tired eyes have trouble reading the small screens.

Gumball

[brostar]

Gumball where I live we have something like more than a 1000 kms of seashore in a 100 km radius. That works by living on a long thin peninsular on the Pacific coast with a large number of off shore islands, three major harbours and a major Peninsular off shore from us plus the Tasman sea coast only 30 minutes drive so the end result is , every one goes fishing. The reason I'm telling you this is there is an old saying that goes like this, Fish at your feet son. The meaning is you can spend 45 minutes going out on your boat to that island over there and catch a feed but you can also go just out to the 10 metre mark, catch the same amount of fish and do so in 1/10th the time & effort. That makes that saying very wise and it's fair to say we have some very wise men on this forum. Len's fix for the actuator is not only a better design, it would be easier to operate, cheeper, more sturdier and it just makes sense. He's not tiring to re-invent the wheel just applying common sense. Please do pass on this idea to the engineer at T.J's, hopefully he will take it on board.

Cheers Mike.

[Lenny]

As an aside, what kind of a GPS are you using? I'm thinking of getting a Lowrance Globalmap 840C. My tired eyes have trouble reading the small screens.

Gumball

I have the Lowrance 540c. Bought it off Ebay for around $450. Has a 5" screen which is ultra bright and is easy to see in direct sunlight screen. The other main reason I like it is that it is water proof. Comes with a nice bracket that allows easy removal when leaving the Trooper alone. I really don't want someone else to find their way through life with my GPS. The screen is the right size for the Trooper IMHO. I'm real happy with it.

Thanks for the comments. Joyner is more then welcome to use my idea. Another way would be to use a simple rocker arm on a pivot in the middle with a torsion spring to hold it in the default 4 wheel drive position when the dash lever was nt pulled. One end of the lever would push the pin in and the other end would be hooked to the pull cable, with a spring in between the two, comming from the lever on the dash. The dash lever is a simple over center cam lock with a tension spring so it is held either in the engaged or not engaged position. I use the same cam over lever on mine and I do the same thing here but in a different way.

Lenny

[ksimpsy]

Hey Lenny what did you do for an oil seal in the diff around the the engagement pin?

[Lenny]

Hey Lenny what did you do for an oil seal in the diff around the the engagement pin?

I used the back plastic panel of the original electric actuator unit. It has the seal for both the shaft and the hole going in. I kept the mount tabs and the pocket that reaches back to the pin and the little sleeve that pushes into the dif and holds the seals. My other assembly layes over this including the mount tabs. In other words it sort of sandwiches to it. When I activate the 4wd buy pulling the cable it pulls on the shaft which holds the pin pushing arm and withdraws it so the pin can come out on its own. It's sprung loaded inside the dif. When I release the pull on the cable, the spring ( used from the original electric assembly ) pushes from it's stationary end which is the end to the rear while also pushing the pin pushing arm to push the pin in. The spring allows the pin to get pushed in when it's ready and lined up inside, thus not forcing it.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Has anyone else had this problem? Mine has worked perfectly but I never engage or disengage while moving. IMHO, some of the problems with the lockers & 4wd has come from engaging & disengaging while moving. I always come to a complete stop!

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Lenny]

The way it works, it doesn't matter if your moving or not. The electrical engager only moves a shuttle which compresses a spring or uncompresses it. The spring when compressed pushes the pin in which slides a collar off of one of two gears so they can turn independenbtly. The spring is used so the system can find a relaxed state before it engages or disengages independent of when you activate the 4wd switch. The reason they don't want it engaged or disengaged while moving is that if its engaged, an you try to disengage it, the collar could get into a position that is only partually engaged before releasing all the way. If there was a pull on the driveline at hat time, it could easily damage either the collar or gears. The same if you try to engage the 4wd while moving.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Thanks Lenny for the info. BUT I will continue on the basis if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Still going to stop and let all those little square Chinese gears & shafts align up before I put stress on my Trooper. So far I have had minimal failures and I have not held back on the play with my Trooper except jumping. I really do appreciate your insight on what the parts look/are like. I also double clutch the thing at times, really old school. LOL!

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[Lenny]

rocmoc, Apperciate your input too. I also always come to a complete stop before engageing/ disengageing. I leaarnd when I was young and thought I could push everything that all it did was break stuff. I don't double clutch but the Trooper does want to be shifted very deliberity or it is easy to miss a shift.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Agree about the shifting. Royal Purple in the Trans helped a little.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico