Trouble shifting Out of Low Range

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Hi All,

I've got a manual 2006 Turbo Diesel Prado. The last couple of proper 4WD trips i've done I've had a fair bit of trouble shifting back to High gear to head home.

On one trip I had to crawl some 30 km or so towards town in Low Locked! - much to my kids dismay as they were late for dinner.

Eventually I yanked the lever back and forth with both hands until she finally shifted into High.

I was completely stopped. In Neutral. Engine running,

Any ideas? I suppose mention it at the next service is one? ops:

thanks

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

I've had it happen a couple of times ... usually after 20 odd K's of soft sand work ...so the transmissions been doing a bit of work .. and it seems to bind up.

If I wait until I get back onto the tarmac and then unlock the transfer it tends to stay locked. Even with a bit of driving backward and forward it tends to stay locked. Once I had to reverse 100 m or so back into the soft stuff and shift into H .. then driving forward again it unlocked fine.

I've since found that if I unlock (shift into H) the transfer while I'm still on the soft stuff I have no problem and it unlocks straight away.

I seem to remember reading something about it here on PP but I can't remember where and I haven't been able to find it with the search.

Sorry to not be of further help.

Cheers
Chippy

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Trouble shifting back to High

Thanks Chippy,
That seems about right with my experiences....

On the worst occassion I was slipping heaps on an incline section (still got Dunlops on) and almost got out the hand whinch but persevered for some time tyring slightly different angles. The wheels were spinning heaps, and some up in the air (I don't have any air lockers). I guess I was working the engine and transmission pretty hard there for a while....

Once I got back on the unsealed road, to head back to town, I just could not get the bugger to High Locked, fro low locked.

Anyway, I'll keep that in mind and keep an eye on it. :?

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Trouble shifting Out of Low Range

Hi All,
On one trip I had to crawl some 30 km or so towards town in Low Locked! - much to my kids dismay as they were late for dinner.

Assuming you were doing this on bitumen, this would be very bad for the drive-train leading to Axle/Transmission Windup.

I think being late for dinner may have been the best thing that could have happened. Blowing diffs would not be unusual in this case. :shock:


LFaR.

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Shifting out of low.

No Live Free and Roam....

Fortunately I managed to budge it out of Low before I hit bitumen...
But I was driving on an unsealed road (which required High Locked at most) for some 30km in Low Locked.

I don't quite understand "wind up" but I am aware of it and knew it was important to get it out of Low...

regards all...

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Hi Simmo,

Fortunately I managed to budge it out of Low before I hit bitumen...

Whew!

I don't quite understand "wind up"

For some background info on windup, take a look at the link in my previous post. It has a very clear description.

Cheers,
LFaR

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

will do.
thanks

[Guest Close Guest]

All 4wds suffer transmission windup. Its no big deal.

Toyotas are known to have transmission windup because on many of their models you are actually engaging the transfer box with the lever and not by electronic solenoid. Its been a "common" problem for many years.

Basically it happens when you lock the centre diff (or engage 4wd in the older models) when you don't really need to, i.e. the surface you are driving on is not slippery enough to "really" justify the need of 4wd.

HOWEVER, in saying this if you think you need 4wd engage it. Transmission windup is not that big of a problem and is easily fixed.

As long as you don't accelerate hard and/or corner sharply on a hard surface your running gear will be more than capable of driving on a hard surface for short distances. You will more than likely scrub your tyres out quicker than you will break running gear, if you are being sensible.

If you are having trouble getting the transfer out of LO try this:

-Make sure you are on a fairly level ground.
-If the transfer gear stick wont move easily into HI don't force it, you can bend the selector rods.
-Select reverse (auto - wait for converter to engage. Man - release clutch) and reverse about a metre.
-Now Select 1st and engage gearbox, whilst moving select Neutral and use your brakes to come to a stop. This should release the bound gear lock. If not do it again.
-This should allow you to change back to HI.

This will generally release any built up bind in the running gear. If not try moving the steering wheel ever so slightly while reversing.

Basically this technique will allow you to get the wheels that are slightly + or - on the gearing mesh to come back to normal.

If you still have problems after 3-4 attempts, drive your vehicle over a rut or jack up a wheel to release the bind. If this is the case get your mechanic to check your running gear for excessive slack. This is often the case of ex government vehicles, mines and emergency response vehicles. i.e. they don't worry about taking the vehicle out of 4wd when they need to.

ONLY LIFT A WHEEL IF YOU SUSPECT TRANSFER BOX DAMAGE. YOU SHOULD NOT NORMALLY NEED TO DO THIS, IT IS A LAST RESORT TO GET YOUR VEHICLE TO A SERVICEABLE LOCATION.

Some of the Itsubishit Pajero had auto free wheeling hubs that could disengage to stop trans windup. The problem was if you rolled back more than the rotation of a wheel it automatically disengaged. This often occured when you need 4wd the most !!

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Windup

thanks Neiool for your response there.

I'll keep an eye on it next time. I really had to yank the transfer stick one time - hope I have not bend the selector rods ops:

thanks again....

[joedan Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close joedan]

I have an automatic Prado (D4D) with High / Low gear selector and while I was cleaning the car the other day must have bumped the selector into position between H and N.

The other day my wife tried to start the car and drive but she kept getting the A/T P light on the dash - looks like the selector finally popped out of H and into a semi Neutral state.

Forward and Reverse didn't work for here so instead of trying to open up the Operating manual she tried putting the car into Forward / Reverse again then into Park. However when she put it into park it gave out an almightly crunch.

When she called me I told her the light meant that the H / L selector wasn't in place (but obviously didn't tell her I could have bumped it out of place).

Anyway don't really know if any damage was done, the H / L selector is a bit sticky and sometimes going back to H gives a out a bit of a clunk. While both H and L work fine, I can't remember whether the gear selector lever is slightly noiser and stickier going between H & L. Just hope there is no damage with the rods or transmission.

Hopefully this is normal?

[plucker Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close plucker]

Reversing for a bit will probably work most times. Cant speak for the Prado directly but most cruisers and Hilux's have the same issue.

[Guest Close Guest]

Hey Joedan,

If everything is still working as it is supposed to and without any audible crunching, throbing or a regular thump that increase with speed. I wouldn't stress to much about it.

Crunching the transfer box is similar to crunching the mainbox. They are made to take a couple of grinds, there are magnets fitted to the drain (filter) plugs which pick up any gear bits that come off. When you get your next big servive this is one way the grease monkeys check for excessive gearbox/diff wear.

I have seen far worse 'abuse", 'accident' or lack of knowledge abuse of transfer boxes and they have all been fine for many thousands of Kms.

[joedan Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close joedan]

http://www.pradopoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=2308&start=60

Thanks Neiool, everything appears to be ok, no crunching or noise when driving in high/low range.

The transfer lever is just a bit sticky but by the sounds of it, could be normal anyway.

[Guest Close Guest]

Guys,
I have been having this truble the last few times offroad, one time so bad l had to drive it to the closest dealer. To my horror they fixed within minutes. The instructions say to do the shift while stationery. The only way to get it out once having this trouble is to move off at about walking pace, push the clutch down and pull back on the lever, it then comes out quite easy. Not common practice but works for some reason

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

I've often found the "4WD" lever difficult to return to 2WD at times, and not just with this current Prado (or LL back to H in the Prado's case). Sometimes it comes out very smoothly, yet at other times it appears stuck fast. So the windup explanation must be the cause of this I'm thinking. Always the method I've used to get it out is similar to what Neiool described. In the end it always seems to pop out easily after a little mucking about. Had this recently with my man D4D. Think I remember thinking "typical" at the time. Just part of 4WD's I think.