I'm sure this is something stupid that I'm missing but need some help. It was a relative's and they were having dead battery issues and had to jump start it every month or so. That may be completely unrelated but worth mentioning. I found a sticky door switch and fixed that issue.

I can pull the motor and engage it manually and it works fine. I get the two 4x4 lights for a few seconds when I start the truck but I get nothing when I turn the 4x4 switch.

So far I have checked the fuse in the cab and under the hood, replaced the 4x4 motor, and replaced the computer behind the radio.

Am I missing something obvious. I haven't touched the switch itself.

 

Q: How did you "engage it manually"? Did you turn the triangular lug with Vise-Grips?
POINT: I believe a healthy battery could help you with this.

They say the switches "never go bad" as they're just a few resistors. I suppose you could check it for breaks

What lives behind the radio in your 1995 B3000 might be something else. There was a GEM module which lived behind the radio in earlier years.

One of the variants had 3 capacitors which could fail....alas, my notes are for later Rangers.

I read that checking fuse #s 10, 22 and 27+28 is part of the check out. 27+28 power the CM itself.

Hope some of this helps

 

Thank you. I pulled the motor and turned the lug with vice grips. Seemed like no issues with the transfer case and the wheels turned once I put it in gear.

I'll keep checking fuses. I did find a separate module behind the radio that is listed as the relays for the 4x4. Seems like an odd item to go bad but I have one on the way. After that all I can think of is the switch.

I'm no good with electrical so I'm just swapping parts at this point which hasn't gone well.

 

See if the module behind the radio has 3 blue, cylindrical components. Those would be the capacitors which can go bad.
If it's them (or one of them) they're cheap and relatively easy to replace.

 

No capacitors that I can see. There is a roughly 3x3 box that I read houses the relays for the 4x4 system. I have one of those on the way. After that the only component left that I have read about would be the switch.

I did just double check every fuse in the truck and didn't find any issues.

 

It magically started working. No idea what I did but think it must have been a bad connection somewhere.