Scooter650, not sure what the problem is "if any", but I have found that switching in and out of 4wd while running 3mph is just about perfect. When I do this mine switches over in a second.

 

Mine will vary 2Ft or 20Ft but it has allways worked . When I take it out of 4Wd the rear raises up.

 

have you check your frunt drive shaft

this has happen to me a lot mno wone can explin it yet

 

I finally got my service manual, and I have gone through all of the 2WD/ 4WD section and am studying it. There is some incredibly useful info in there, but man, some of it is hard to grasp if your not already an experienced mechanic. Anyway, I checked and replaced the fuse, tried all of the little tricks that everyone has mentioned and it has not worked. So, I guess it is time to pull the actuator off and have a look at it. It says that the engagement pin can be out of alignment and this might be causing it, and if so you can put power to it and rotate it to the 2WD position and reinstall it and it is fixed. So hopefully that is what it is. If anyone knows any more about this, PLEASE ELABORATE FOR ME. I will try it on Saturday and let you know.

Also, the hand tester for electical that is mentioned throughout the manual, is this specifically for the Prairie or is this a generic automotive type electical tester? Can I just go to the auto parts store and get a tester to be able to test all that I need to???

I am really against taking my machine to the dealer, I am not to crazy about paying their markup on parts, not having my quad for weeks at a time, and would rather do this myself, so any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

 

Scooter, if you don't have one, you just need a common volt-ohm meter of the radio shack kind (or whatever). Make sure your get volts and ohms.

The mechanics of the actuator are as simple as making toast. Take it off, and while turning front tires, try to engage it and disengage it with a screwdriver (careful not do damage seal surfaces). That part that 633 was refering to just slides back and forth. 4x4 one way, 2x4 the other.

I think a connector is somewhere near the actuator to test the wires. Disconnect it.
A apply battery voltage to the big wires going to the actuator, red and black (either way) and see if it moves (or tries since the tires need to be moving) one way or the other. If not, the motor is dead. All the controller does is apply voltage to these wires to get the actuator to move. You can do it too.

There are three little wires. Orange gets 12 or 5 volts ( I think, where is my calculator?) from the controller. No matter, check to see what you get. Black should be grounded by the controller. If these two don't happen, controller is dead or possibly unpowered or not grounded.

When everything is connected, yellow is supposed to be .9v when in 2x4 and 2.85v in 4x4. If controller works and this voltage does not read right, the actuator is dead. You may have to get a paperclip to test the yello voltage when it is all plugged in.

The book gives you so tests to run with the ohm meter on 16-60. You can do those too.

good luck.



If there

 

Scooter650,

Don't know if this will help but worth a look. I had the same problem several months ago and it was a damaged speed sensor (small black plugin, bottom right side of motor). Apparently, if not correctly reading wheel rotation it will not allow 4wd to engage. Check to see if speedo looks like it is reading fairly accurate and if not ckeck sensor to see if the plug is fully seated, dirty or damaged.
Hope this helps.

 

Scotia, what you said is right, but wouldn't scooter's speedometer reading would be noticably fouled up if the speed sensor was broken. He hasn't mentioned that.

You are 100% right about the need for the sensor, but Scooter has been watchin his speedometer quite a lot . If the sensor was messed up bad enough to affect 4x4, Scootter would have seen a real obvious problem there.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could all vote on what we think the problem is before Scooter found out the truth. Hmm. Anybody wanna play? I vote bad actuator.

 

I'd put my money on either the actuator or the collar on the back of the actuator. We've had to replace both.

 

nyroc,

I don't expect it to be the sensor because the speedo probably wouldn't read at all (Mine didn't) and scooter would have noticed this.

Just thought that maybe it worth a look in case the buildup of snow messed up the connection and is sending an intermittent signal.

It's a quick ckeck, but my money would also have to go on the actuator.

 

Man, I don't want it to be the actuator, but I think that is what it is too! That is a $200 part, right? There goes the fun money!!! It might be 2 wheel drive for a while if that is what is wrong, since the wife is out of work.

Keep the votes coming....