TRAIL TECH TIP: 62-SERIES Stuck In 4WD, will not go back into 2WD
Say you’re out on trail and you’ve put your 62-Series Land Cruiser into 4WD to make it out of that last section, but now your rig is not wanting to go back into 2WD mode. You have an 80-mile commute back home. What is typically the cause and what do you do?
In the engine compartment, located on the firewall are two modules that are vacuum solenoid sensors that are electrically controlled. The Blue one on top is the 4WD module and the bottom Red one is the 2WD module. The issue is that the Red solenoid lives the majority of its life in the “ON” position. Once it’s turned off, sometimes it doesn’t want to return to service. So what do you do to get your rig back into 2WD? Bypass the Red solenoid by using the working Blue solenoid to send vacuum back to the 2WD side.
Your going to have to get creative as most likely you do not have a way to join the two hoses as we have shown you in our example below. Do you have a straw and tape? Maybe just the tape, and a lot of it, as you are going to ensure an air tight seal? Maybe you actually have some Rescue Tape as this would be ideal to use in such situations. If not, order some and keep in your rig’s tool kit! Now, you might say, “I will just remove the one small piece of hose and “stretch over” the longer hose to the 4WD connector.” You’ve obviously not been working on your rig very long as these hoses are OLD and BRITTLE! These hoses have been in the oven for at least 32-years! This procedure needs to be preformed with caution with these old lines! If you create a crack or leak in this hose, now your whole rig is in jeopardy of going nowhere.
ALSO, add some 1/8″ Vacuum Connectors and a length of vacuum line to you rig’s tool kit!
With all this, the 62-Series solenoids are no longer available and or are very expensive from Toyota. But, there are other vehicles that use the same type solenoid from Toyota, thus the below IH8MUD threads will indicate other Toyota examples to use, such as Celica’s and 4Runners.
This has been a very discussed issue on IH8MUD.com (Toyota Land Cruiser Enthusiast Forum). If you are new to your 62-Series or any Toyota Land Cruiser, you want to be on this forum! We highly encourage you to spend as much time as you can here learning about your rig! Here are a couple of threads directly related to this same issue, stuck in 4WD:
• 88 FJ62 stuck in 4WD
• FJ-62 T-case actuator solenoids
• 4WD Stuck On? FJ62
• 84 FJ60 stuck in 4wd?? Lost
Be very carful in your removal of the old hoses from the solenoid as the hoses are most likely old and brittle.
Simply removing the small section of hose and stretching the longer hose up will most likely cause damage to the brittle vacuum line and now leave your transfer case inoperable or worse, in “between-ish” gears and if you try to drive it can cause catastrophic drive-train failure. See where this is all going! We love our old rigs, but that comes with diligent management of maintenance!
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