F-150 -- real stiff 4WD shifter - normal?

[Anonymous-0]

This is tractor related since this truck is my tractor hauler, so there. ;^)

Just got a 2001 F-150 5.4L 4WD. The 2wd-4wd transfer shifter is very stiff, like my wife probably couldn't do it. I have shot it with penetrating lubricant, which helped a tad. Is this normal? I'm not sure if the prior owner (1 owner truck) used the 4wd much or at all.

Thanks!

 

[Dan-IA]

My results may not mean much because mine is an F-250 and it's a '76, but that lever down there on the floor has always been a job to move. I found it helped a lot to shift to neutral, step on the brakes and come to almost a complete stop, let off the brakes and move that lever while the truck is just starting to roll. Oh, I should have mentioned you probably don't want to be on perfectly level ground.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sometimes they get stiff from not being used very often. It's a good idea to put it in 4 wheel drive every once in a while while on a gravel road or something. Also stopping and backing up is what it said to do in my Ranger manual if it was hard to shift. Dave

 

[Jim k]

What you have to do is take the lever and pivot point apart clean and lubricate it. I even put a zerk (grease) fitting on mine. The pivot shaft and sleeve on the lever get dirt and water in them and rust up. eventually it will get to the point where you wont be able to engage the transfer case. So take it all apart and clean the sleeve an pivot so everything is nice and shiny, and then make lubricating that setup whenever you get under there to grease everything. Remember that whenever you submerge the hubs when four wheeling your shortening their life water and don't mix and the water will eventually wash all the grease out of the wheel bearings and on that vehicle the hub and bearings are unitized and you have to change the whole works when a bearing goes south.

 

[FarmallJoe]

some of my buddies have fords and they tend to be hard to shift

you have an 01 and it isnt push button, that seems odd cause my friends got a 97 chevy with push button. However i would rather have the manual to bybass the whole computer system. you know less working parts

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thanks guys!