Hi. I have a 94 ranger 4.0l with 5-speed. The motor for the t-case quit working on me a couple months ago so I just took it off because at the time I was way out in the boonies and I needed four wheel drive, so I took off the motor and shifted it with a pair of visegrips. When we got out I did same again and put it back i. Two wheel drive. That was a while ago. I haven't had much time or money to replace the shift motor so I've just been driving it around with the motor removed. The other day I was coming home from work with a welder in the box and it was like the front brakes were sticking on. I was in the Walmart parking lot and I couldn't move in two wheel drive so I locked the hubs and crawled under and put it in four. It moved no problem . I moved it out of the way and to a location I wasn't gonna get harrased by anyone and jacked up a front wheel and the wheel turned fine. No issues. So I thought what the hell and tried the other wheel. Same same. Neither brake was locked or even slightly dragging. So I thought that maybe it was just some ice or something. So I let it down and put away my jack unlocked my hubs and manually shifted back into two wheel and tried to drive home. I was on dry pavement but it was not happy. It felt like the passenger side front wheel was dragging. Since I had no other way of getting me and the rented welder I had in the back, home, I figured I had no choice but to drive it as it was. I took off and went for a few minutes and pulled over . I thought I'd try and save.it as much as posible and I'd let it cool. I thought I'd be smoking a brake for sure. Not even slightly warm. Hub wasn't warn nothing . Everything looked fine and I am a licensed Heavy duty Mechanic. So I have had a bit of experience with this sort of thing. I know what to look at and how to tell the difference between hooped or nothing wrong. It still felt like the front passenger was dragging and in the five minutes I had come I had gone over a couple icy patches and steering felt a little sketchy so I decided maybe I should put it back I four wheel drive so I did. It drove fine other than I was in four wheel drive on the the highway. Made it home and had a quick look but all seemed to be OK. Now this is about one in the morning and I have to be back at the jobsite for a sixthirty safety meeting. Being its only two miles to the job from my house I figured puss on it, it made it the twenty five miles home it will make another two. I was wrong. Next morning I was almost to the job.when I had to gear down for a corner. Went from third to second and wiz it went . Almost like I blew the clutch. It doesn't have five hundred km on it since I put a brand new button clutch in it so I was cursing out about cheap expensive crap parts and crawled under and had a look. Clutch was fine not even a hint of wear. The transmission seems fine goes through all the gears. Its like the t-xase is stuck in neutral. Got no go no matter what I try . Tried shifting it with visegrips and it seems to shift. I'm not positive but it might feel a little diferent than the two times I had shifted it with visegrips before but I'm not sure. But it seems like it's shifting. No go tho. I didn't think a b.g. t-xase even had a neutral let alone get stuck in neutral. I gota get it fixed and I gotta do.it on the cheap. Anyone ever had something like this happen? Does anyone no if these t-cases have a neutral. I haven't had much experience with them and don't know much about them. Thsi truck has been probably the best truck I've ever owned. It has done some things it probably never ever should have. Other than putting some custom built overloads and upgrading the rear axles (i have a tendency to haul a bit more than old Henry ever designed a ranger to haul.) Oh ya and the clutch upgrade. Oil changes and regular maintenance this thing has taken everything I could throw at it. Any ideas be much appreciated. Thanks in advance to ya all.

 

You need to use paragraphs, lol

Yes, all transfer cases have Neutral, you have a BW1354 transfer case in a 1994 Ranger, Neutral is opposite 2H on the shift rod, between 4H and 4L
When manually shifting using pliers you need to hold the shift rod in place after shifting it, so vise grips are good to use but you then need to strap them up so shifter can't move while driving

Try moving in 4th gear, the M5OD-R1 manual transmission can get a stripped input shaft gear, so only 4th gear would then work, no 1, 2, 3, 5, or R

All 4x4s have an OPEN front axle, not a Ford thing, so if you jack up just one front wheel it will always turn, even in 4WD with hub locked
If you have manual hubs then when they are unlocked there would be no strain on the transfer case in any 4WD position, so you could drive anywhere on any roads without hurting the transfer case