After 2 years of my 4WD not working on my 2001 Ranger I finally fixed it. I did some research on here as well as some other sites with not much luck. I was not sure what the problem was. I did find a few topics that stated that the 2001-05 Rangers/Explorers/Sport Tracs had a bad 4X4 ECM. That when the battery died it would kill the 4X4 ECM. Mine quit working after I had to change my battery 2 years ago.

The way to pin point if this is the problem or not is when you turn the key on the 4WD lights in the dash will not light up when all of the other lights do. This was my problem. I found a ebay seller that sells them for $120.91. The sellers is fordpartsguys. The part number is 1L5Z-7E453-AC. I did find some topics that stated that some people had purchased them from there local dealer for over $200 plus and they wanted them to pay extra to program it. Well there is no need to program anything. I received mine today and swapped them out and all is fine.

I just wanted to pass this on to help someone else.

 

eh for that money you coulda done a manual tcase swap.

however, for the people that dont want to do that its a good thing to know. good post

 

When my 4x4 kicked the bucket I spent $163 at the stealership for a replacement control module, HUGE mistake.

It's cheaper all together to swap to manual

 

May be cheaper, but I'm sure there is many people out there who may not have the know-how or want to do it. Good info!

 

Good info and good to know that you got it straight.

 

Ditto, if you have an auto tranny I'd say a manual T-case swap could be done for as little as $150 if you shop around. My buddy just got a 98 f150 with electric 4wd and it doesn't want to work. It's going to be a ***** and expensive to get it fixed.

 

My 2001 Ranger has been having the same issues for a year or two. Sometimes the switch works and other times it does not. Want to replace the contol mod as well and will try your suggestionm to get the part. Thank you.

 

How many pins are on this controller? I know on the 98 model, its only about 10, all that is inside is two relays to turn the transfer case motor clock- or counterclockwise.

On my 98, the controller was good, but it gets its commands from the BCM which is controlled by the switch, and the BCM is bad. If they made a stand-alone controller for the new models I might have to give it a shot!