sixpacktr

I have a 98 F150 XLT with 4 wheel drive. It is not the electronic type, but a stick shift on the floor (the tranny is auto). My question: how do I engage the 4WD? I tried pulling on it a little today, but it wouldn't budge, and I don't want to do anything to screw it up. How do I shift? The owner's manual states I can shift to 4WD high on the fly, but I just want to be able to shift it. Do you do it in Park? Or in Neutral? Do I really have to yank on it, or should it shift easily?

cole_ford

you shouldnt have to yank on it. I dont know much about fords shift on the floor, but i would think most models would be the same. You can do it in any gear you want. You shouldnt have to reaf on it hard, but it takes a little tug usually to get to engage. Try driving forward, and put it nuetral and then shift in to 4wd.

chad085

I personally don't have the manual 4wd shifter in my 150, i have the electronic garbage, but i will tell you from experience of several other 4wd vehicles that the T-case does not shift smooth and easy like you may think. It doesn't feel like shifting a manual trans, it takes a little effort to engage, especially if it hasn't been engaged in a while. shouldn't have to really yank on it though. You could crawl under there and just double check that nothing is binding. Does the truck have a body lift?? that could create binding issues.

you can shift 2hi to 4hi on the fly, assuming all 4 wheels are spinning the same speed (in other words if you are stuck and spinning the back wheels don't try to jam it in!!). I'm not a big fan of doing it, shifting while stopped is an easy way to avoid some wear and tear, but moving slowly may actually help in your case (pun intended haha) to free things up and help engage it. shifting to 4lo ALWAYS requires stopping, and trans in neutral. sometimes letting your foot off the brake and letting the truck roll slightly can help engage 4lo.

go find a grass or dirt field somewhere and spend some time shifting it, and drive around in 4hi and 4lo so your truck can "stretch" a little. 4wd will be much easier to engage the more often you do it.

cole_ford

yea, what he said. I have the electronic shift too.

Weldman0730

Sometimes they are hard to shift, just tug on it and move the truck forward a bit and it will go. I know I had a hard time getting my 94' to shift, so I replaced the oil in it and it made it shift better.

sixpacktr

Thanks everyone for your help. I will try the WD40 and then jiggling it. I figured it was just not used a lot, but since my last 4WD was my Jeep, I wanted to be sure it was basically the same thing (tug on it).

Thanks again.

Weldman0730

WD40? If you are refering to my post, I mean't the oil inside the transfer case, which is definatly not WD40, and there is nothing on the outside to oil.

Definatly don't put WD40 inside your transfer case fyi!

sixpacktr

Oh no! Not inside the transfer case. I was going to WD40 the linkage to make sure that it moves smoothly there before I move it.

Thanks for the warning though...

Weldman0730

Yeah no problem, I didnt know how new you are to trucks and the last thing I want is someone who is new, like a 16 y/o doing something to thier truck that will mess it up because they missinterpreted what I posted, that would be bad.....BTW any luck yet?

farmerboy3

i thought you had to stop shift it and then go