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1992 Loyale- 4WD not engaging


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Hello all. I had such good luck here before on my coolant thermosensor, I thought I'd try back with another. Basicallly what it is, my 4wd does not engage. I'm certain that its not because I've had it in enough times to recognize that familiar stiffness. I've done some searches of other posts and checked out the vacuum lines on the white "fuel filter" looking thing and they seem o.k. And I tried the heater/defrost switching and it does seem to be working alright. I traced the vacuum lines to some electrical looking things near the fuel filter. Are they something to check out or do they bother at all?

Today ,where I couldn't get out of the driveway after this snowstorm , and incidentally not able to get to work , I'm going to get underneath and look for that switch that I've read about that is mounted on the tranny and see if I can get at that and check it out, maybe it is just sticking, I don't know?

Anything else to check on??? Thanx ,Toni.

Oh, and by the way, this is a 5 speed manual trans. and the dash indicator light does not come on either.

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Before you go crawling around in the snow looking for some magical switch, you should know that those 2 little 'electrical looking things near the fuel filter' are the activation solenoids for 2wd/4wd switching.

 

When you press the button on the shifter, you should hear a click from that solenoid pack. If you don't, its time to figure out why.

 

Is there power? Are they grounded/?

Is there power going to the switch on the shifter?

Did you blow a fuse?

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O.K. I thought I'd better post right back. After some more tracing of the vacuum lines I've discovered a black plastic tee that is hooked up to some big black round sphere, and other lines, that is broken off. Its easier to find stuff in the light of day I guess. While I had the car running and the 4wd button "on" I pinched off one of the lines and when I got in to shut the car off it had already engaged. So I'm pretty sure thats the problem. Funny thing is, this tee has a Ford emblem on it?? Aftermarket??? Anywho, I'm headed for my local NAPA to see if they can come up with this. I've checked my old '88 and it does not have this part on it. Probably because the 4wd is manually engaged I guess. Well thanks calebz for your intended help. I'll post back with my results.

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Toni, if you care to learn anymore about the system.

 

There is a repair article in the

USRM (Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual)

 

You can link to it from the top of the page

 

here is a direct link to the repair art. on the system

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/article.php?a=47

 

hope you get it fixed and welcome to the board.

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Wow, this site is like a pot-of-gold. That article is just another example. Where else could one get such details!!

I wasn't able to get the part from my local NAPA store and he didn't even try to see if he could order one, so, I guess its back to the "Evil Empire" to get one from them. Unless one of you guys know of a place where I could order one at a reasonable price??

What I ended up doing was to take a long 1/8" steel pop rivet and remove the mandrel and grind off the head of it and use it as a sleeve and then use a liberal amount of Krazy Glue and "Viola" I was back in business!! Of course this probably isn't a permanent repair, but, it willl get me back and forth to work in the mean time.

There is one other thing that bugs me about this car. Its the intermittent on the windshield wipers. It works good on the slow and fast settings, but, on the intermittent it will keep hesitating all the time its on. It seems like it wants to go, but, it just don't seem to make it. I tried taking a motor off my old '88 and one off my brothers old '81 and neither one did any better. While I was checking them out with a battery charger I noticed that the '81 used less amps so I ended up using that one. Any ideas??? Thanx.

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Yes, I'll definitely try to add another ground, but not until the outside temperature gets to above 10*F. I can wait for that as its been doing that for probably ever since I've had the car, not really a necessary thing, just an annoyance.

 

So far the repair on the tee is holding up well. And I can wait until Spring to get another. Thanks for the offer hoozie. I'll probably end up at a local yard to get one as well, as a new dealer one just might cost more than the car's worth. LOL.

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