I have an 04 rainier 5.3 with 215k miles. I bought it at 175K 3 years ago and fixed a bunch of stuff wrong with it. The transfer case AWD shift motor was bad so I changed it with the Dorman one.
I found our recently my AWD doesnt work. I got stuck going up a slightly snowy road, no front wheel power. I checked both the right left coupler and front diff by lifting each wheel up and trying to spin it. They all checked out. I also lifted all 4 wheels off the ground and put the car in drive. All 4 wheels spin in drive. However if I lightly chock both front wheels they will not spin. I also checked on the ground by putting the rear wheels on ice and front wheels in 4-5 inches of light snow. Just spun the rears.
I read somewhere there was a check to see if the transfer case shift motor is getting a PWM signal. Anybody know what wire that is? When I brought it to a shop 2 years ago for diagnosis (since it won't throw a code and my HPtuners wouldnt read it, needed a tech2) the tech put a test light between one of the 5 wires and did get signal. He said the 04 system did not allow him to manually shift it with the tech2, only 05+. If I can check to see if its getting a signal i can at least be mostly confident the encoder is out again but with only 2 years i just have a hard time believing it.
Since all 4 wheels did turn (just with no noteable amount of power) I am tempted to believe the Tcase clutch is burnt out with the high miles. I did change the fluid when I bought it with the autotrack2 stuff and it looked clean. Havnt checked recently.
I did have a problem for the past few months where my ABS would kick in at all times below 5mph. I broke one of the sensors when trying to check it taking it out. Turned out to be the aftermarket wheelbearing got rust inbetween the sensor and the stainless shim pack, I just had to clean the surfaces and the ABS works as it should. Probably a separate problem but I thought id mention it.
I found our recently my AWD doesnt work. I got stuck going up a slightly snowy road, no front wheel power. I checked both the right left coupler and front diff by lifting each wheel up and trying to spin it. They all checked out. I also lifted all 4 wheels off the ground and put the car in drive. All 4 wheels spin in drive. However if I lightly chock both front wheels they will not spin. I also checked on the ground by putting the rear wheels on ice and front wheels in 4-5 inches of light snow. Just spun the rears.
I read somewhere there was a check to see if the transfer case shift motor is getting a PWM signal. Anybody know what wire that is? When I brought it to a shop 2 years ago for diagnosis (since it won't throw a code and my HPtuners wouldnt read it, needed a tech2) the tech put a test light between one of the 5 wires and did get signal. He said the 04 system did not allow him to manually shift it with the tech2, only 05+. If I can check to see if its getting a signal i can at least be mostly confident the encoder is out again but with only 2 years i just have a hard time believing it.
Since all 4 wheels did turn (just with no noteable amount of power) I am tempted to believe the Tcase clutch is burnt out with the high miles. I did change the fluid when I bought it with the autotrack2 stuff and it looked clean. Havnt checked recently.
I did have a problem for the past few months where my ABS would kick in at all times below 5mph. I broke one of the sensors when trying to check it taking it out. Turned out to be the aftermarket wheelbearing got rust inbetween the sensor and the stainless shim pack, I just had to clean the surfaces and the ABS works as it should. Probably a separate problem but I thought id mention it.
