Stuck in 4h! Help!

Ok so truck is fixed!!! Yay! Had the truck go to the garage and the guys there took off the ADD actuator first to see what’s up and they found that the fluid inside was grey. Not so good. So they changed the fluid and put back the ADD actuator after verifying it was working.

Next they took off the transfer case actuator and re-timed the gears in the actuator. It seems that in the end it was out of time therefore not working. So now it’s back in time and working.
I think it may have been kicked out of time due to the -30c weather we had a while back. When it’s that cold I would imagine the lubes inside the transfer case are thicker than peanut butter. Those gears in the transfer case actuator are just plastic so it would make sense that the electric motor that runs them jumped the gears due to the extra force needed to move the pin in the transfer case.

Lesson learned. Don’t switch in 4wd if possible in -30

Thank you guys again for the great help and a special thanks to BigWhiteTRD

 

Thanks for following up.

 

Hello!! Just thought I’d bring back this conversation to life because I just had the same problem again 1 year later. Truck was not able to change from 4h to 2wd.
I took apart my transfer case actuator and re-aligned all the gears and put it back together and it’s working again as it should.

I spoke with a knowledgeable Toyota tec and asked him what the reoccurring issue could be caused by. He said that 9 times out of 10 it is because of the electrical contacts on the small electric motor in the actuator are sometimes failing to make contact. Taking it apart and reassembling may fix the issue temporarily but to better fix the issue he said to clean and bend out those terminals so they have better contact.

For now my truck is working and I don’t feel like taking it apart again in the winter cold if I don’t have to. But if the issue comes up again I will do what he suggested and try to get some photos.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GCY2BCdlU4I

this is still the best vid for taking apart the transfer case actuator if anyone needs to do so.