Hello, I am at my wits end...... I took my P38 to a garage because it was draining the battery when left for a few days. Eventually returned and all seemed well. For some reason I checked the low ratio before going off road and nothing, no light, no low gear. I returned to the garage and when it went on the ramp the connection to the transfer motor was disconnected. The mechanic joyfully connected it however when it came down there was now no drive at all. No fault indicated, still nothing happening if low selected. Any advice or help with the wiring diagram of the motor most welcome. Thanks
jamesmartin
Well-Known Member
first time youd tried to change high/low?
To quote @Saint.V8 (the boss on this sort of thing)....
Transfer Box ECU - under the passanger seat, if it smells burnt, its toast...they do fail regularly by burning out the compnents on the circuit board...esp. if the transfer motor is stuck
Transfer Motor - these do seize up, also the switch pack on the back breaksdown giving incorrect info to the ECU
Gearbox XYZ switch - unlikely to be the issue if the main box behaves itself, but if this isn't giving the Gearbox ECU the neutral signal, or the gearbox ECU isn't telling the Transfer Box ECU that it is in neutral, the ratio won't change.
Transfer Box ECU - under the passanger seat, if it smells burnt, its toast...they do fail regularly by burning out the compnents on the circuit board...esp. if the transfer motor is stuck
Transfer Motor - these do seize up, also the switch pack on the back breaksdown giving incorrect info to the ECU
Gearbox XYZ switch - unlikely to be the issue if the main box behaves itself, but if this isn't giving the Gearbox ECU the neutral signal, or the gearbox ECU isn't telling the Transfer Box ECU that it is in neutral, the ratio won't change.
P38-DFX
P38 Enthusiast
OP’s car is a manual. Doesn’t have an ecu or XYZ switch
So, is stuck between LO-HI then.
Do you get "Select Neutral" message on the message centre?
I usually wants to "know" it is in Neutral before the motor will engage to transfer the box from Lo to Hi or Hi to Lo I thought.
On an Auto this is indicated by the output from the XYZ switch, but I don't know what does it on a man-well.
@tomcatalan ?
Do you get "Select Neutral" message on the message centre?
I usually wants to "know" it is in Neutral before the motor will engage to transfer the box from Lo to Hi or Hi to Lo I thought.
On an Auto this is indicated by the output from the XYZ switch, but I don't know what does it on a man-well.
@tomcatalan ?
RangeRoller dt
Well-Sprung Member
Have you been towing it? Has anyone been putting fuses in or out?
RangeRoller dt
Well-Sprung Member
Fuse 11 (5amp+) should be empty. It’s only inserted to force the box into ‘transfer neutral’ for towing purposes to avoid damaging the transmission. Check there’s nothing in there
RangeRoller dt
Well-Sprung Member
You can take the ratio motor off and turn the triangular shaft by hand easily enough. I cannot remember which way is HIGH but you'll work it out!
Thank you all for your help. I had driven into the garage so I thought it unlikely that fuse 11 was the problem and I had checked to see it was empty (unfortunately under the bonnet) however an interesting combination of circumstances combined to fool me. The initial reason why the low ratio was not working was because the connection to the motor was disconnected however by the time this was discovered and connected it the mechanic had seen the empty fuse 11 (under the seat) and thought that this might be the problem and so put a fuse in! Obviously causing no drive at all............ After giving up and consulting here and other sites I went back today and started from scratch saying to check nothing in fuse 11 under the seat. Well there it was and when it was removed all became well. So thanks again
Cheap fix. The moral for any garage? RTFM.
Some garages I know you may have to explain what RTFM means. We do but they don't
Raise the flipping money! 
