5-speed push button 4wd wagon. The 4wd idiot light on my dash started to flicker on and off the other day. So I figured the 4wd was on the fritz or something. When I pushed the 4wd button I could feel the 4wd engage. Soooo at least I know the 4wd is not engage when the button is not pressed and the light is flickering. Today on my way to work, the light just stayed on solid. What the heck do I check? Must be a wiring problem, but where do I start looking first? I hope some of you can help!

 

Thanks,

The switch for the dash indicator is on the transmission. Very hard to reach as it is high on the passenger side rear.

Make sure the car is not in 4wd, as this switch is only activated when the lever for shifting into 4wd is moved to the engagement position.

or

The wires from the switch may have been pinched.

This pair of wires from the switch (one blue with a red tracer and one black) run on top of the transmission and meet a subharness at a barrel connector under the spare tire. The blue/red wire could be gounding out as that is what turns the light on. (The black wire is a ground wire)

There is a fairly recent post on problems caused by the cable from the vacuum servo unit that controls 4wd engagement sticking, you may want to search and read. Mine recently did this also.

I wrote an article on repair of this system but it has not made it into the repair manual.

Email me and I'll send you a copy if you like.

Hope this helps

OK, I'll check those wires. And it's not going in to 4wd when the light is on. Thats why I thought that post was irrelevant.

Thanks!

If it just gets to be too much of a headache, you could always disconnect the light in the dash. As long as you can discern whether it's in4wd or not, the light is merely cosmetic.