well, i did everything on the hubs like scramadamadingdong said. cleaned all the grease out of them, and filled them correctly with mobil 1 atf (dealer was out of the correct fluid) well, the right wheel works great. the left wheel still doesn't work. i had the hubs dissasembled, and i turned on the key and turned the switch to awd, held the armature plate up to the right hub, and felt a very strong pull. at the left hub, i either felt nothing or a tiny pull (hard to tell). i didn't see a loose wire, so how do i test them? ( i know nothing about electrical troubleshooting) how do i test the coil? thanks.

 

wait, so what exactly is happening? the front wheels arent engaging? if thats it, it could be electrical.

 

the right front engages, but the left does not.

 

maybe the magnets inside the hub? or even probaby something electrical.

 

ok, first make sure your armature plate is facing the right way. There are 3 slots in the roller cage that the armature plate must engage. also make sure your armature plate is flat. if it's bent replace it. check to make sure the seal sleeve is pressed in far enough around the inner magnet pole. If you put a straight edge from one side of the seal the the other there should be 0-.001" of clearance between the bottom of the straight edge and the Inner magnet pole. If you are feeling a little pull then this could very well be the problem since the seal is keeping the armature too far away from the magnet.
Ok now for the nitty gritty electrical checks. Grab your handy dandy DVOM and take the front cover off the scrammy. Remember to take the oil cap off first it's much easier. now look for the harness connector that has the gray and brown wheel wires. Remove from harness. now test resistance between the two wires with your ohm meter. you should get between 25-30 OHMs of resistance. Now test continuity from the gray wire to a clean area of the strut casing. You should have no continuity here. If everything checks out ok then do both things again while moving the wiring harnes to make sure you don't have an intermittent open or short.
Now there are several other modules and relays and so forth that are used in the system and any one of them could be a problem. try testing out both sides the way I suggested and then get back to me with the results and we can go from there to see which system we need to tackle next

 

dvom?

i will try that stuff.

the armature is fine. they are correctly positioned and brand new.

you don't know how much i appreciate your help.

 

DVOM= Digital Volt Ohm Meter. Basically a volt meter with added functions like resistance, continuity, amperage etc. Sorry it took so long to get back to you

here is a link to a basic one click here there are many different types and you can find them just about anywhere.

 

well, my dad had an analog one, so i tried it. maybe i'm doing it wrong. i kept getting no resitance on the right(working) wheel, and .5 on the left (not working) wheel. so i switched the connectors, and nothing changed, i.e., the left wheel didn't work, and the right one did. so does that mean the problem is from the connector down?

 

Ok, I am thinking now that the problem is going to be your hub coil. The actual electromagnet part. I am not totally sure that this is the problem but it is a good bet considering all the things you are seeing. the part number is 2201313 and you can get it from polarisopemparts.com for 58.33. If that's not the problem then it's still cheaper than a shop charge to diagnose it. I would say that a good way to be 99% sure that the coil is the problem you could put the armature and hilliard clutch from the good side into the bad side then check if it engages. If it doesn't you can be pretty certain it's the coil. Let me know how it goes
Eric

 

will do. thanks.

bruce.