no havent changed the switch in shifter, have changed wiring harness, 2 sensors, and they switch housing. how do i test the shifter switch? The AWD light doesnt come on either.

 

I will look in the service manual at work tommorrow if I can and tell u the steps on troubleshooting it. Sounds to me like the switch in the shifter.

 

I have a 97 Magnum 4x4 in addition to my 99 Sportsman.
My gear indicator lights quit working. I found out the switch was bad, and unplugged it because it shorted out my lights. Only thing is the front wheels still engage in 4 wheel drive, although the light does not illuminate. I have checked that bulb and it is good.
My 2 cents. Hope it helps, David

 

My gear indicator lights work fine. Could it still be the switch?

 

Have you tried holding the reverse override in If the 4wheel kicks in the switch on the tranny or the reverse overide is bad.My brother in law's 97 400 sport had this problem and the dealer said to try this and then eleminate the switches 1 by 1 . We found the reverse over ride was bad. for some reason it acted like the machine was in reverse all the time.

 

I think you are looking for something like this? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]
12V DC to the gray wire pulls the armature plate of the Hillard clutch in. (ie. AWD works)
The coils have to have power (+, gray wire) and ground (-, brown/white) to operate, you could also have a bad ground to the coils.
According to the diagram I have, the ground is from a orange/white wire from the Speedo that joins into the brown/white wire.

(remember, if the air gap of the seal sleeve and the coil's inner magnet pole is not right, then the coil will not pull the armature plate of the Hillard clutch in).

 

Be sure to check the ground connection. The most common thing I see when people can't find why there is no power to the magnets, it is losing ground. Good luck.

 

Kewl, so if i just cut the wires going to each hub, smack a hot and ground on them, they should engage. Well it being almost 3 years since it worked i am sure i will have to pull them apart and clean everything real well, and reoil. SO grey is hotand brown/white is ground. LOL kewl on my way out the door to either get 4x4 working or burn my quad down. HEHE I know this isnt the best way to do it but i am sick and tired of not having 4wd. Yes i have thought about all the safety concerns, but think that with a switch to kill the awd I will be fine. Thanks for the help

 

ok hooked power strainght to the hub 12v to grey and grounded the brown/white. It arched a lil and the wires got warm, did not engage, took hubs apart and found nothing wrong. GRRRR what could be wrong

 

Take the hubs apart again - remove the thin plate from the back of the Hillard clutch. Engage the AWD and place the plate to the seal sleeve (covers the magnetic coil). The plate should "snap" to the seal sleeve and have fair resistance when trying to remove by hand if the magnet is working. Check the air gap between the seal sleeve and the inner pole of the magnetic coil - I think it is only supposed to be 0.001" - if it is any greater the clutch won't work.

When you put the hubs back together, make sure the torque is right on the axle nut - 2 stages 165 in lbs, spin hub several revolutions, back off, 124 in lbs