I have an 05 Buick Rainier that the awd isn't working. Long story but shortly after I got it, the vehicle completely died. The dealership ended up replacing most of the electronics and said it was hit with a massive surge, possibly lightning. I realize awd is always active but the first time it threw power to the front wheels they locked in and it became terrible to drive (crow hopping, etc). I pulled the encoder motor and replaced it but that didn't fix it. Currently no encoder motor on it and I manually put it into 2wd. My question is: can I convert it to a manually engaged awd/4wd without changing the transfer case? A friend suggested figuring out the pinout on the encoder motor and bypassing the vehicle CPU so I can manually power it to move forward or backwards, I was thinking doing something mechanical like putting a lever on the spindle up through the floor board. Any insight would be appreciated