# 4 wheel drive on a 96 ford explorer

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/4-wheel-drive-on-a-96-ford-explorer/55786>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** explorer, ford\
**Created:** [September 30, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/4-wheel-drive-on-a-96-ford-explorer/55786 "2010-09-30T18:30:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zac411](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9bcb4/32.png) [@zac411](https://community.cartalk.com/u/zac411)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/4-wheel-drive-on-a-96-ford-explorer/55786/1 "2010-09-30T18:30:55Z")

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my 4wheel drive seems to be stuck in 4wheel cause my front drive shaft is turning and the twist button 4wheel drive is in the off position is there a way to get underneath it and take it out of 4wheel drive my self until i can get it home from work and take off the front drive shaft?

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**Author:** ![andrew\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@andrew\_j](https://community.cartalk.com/u/andrew_j)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/4-wheel-drive-on-a-96-ford-explorer/55786/2 "2010-09-30T19:11:25Z")

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The likely case is your automatic hubs are not freeing up.

Sometime backing up straight disengages them. I would not “remove” a drive shaft as it would be easier to address the hubs themselves. When I owned a 4wd truck I left my manual hubs locked in the winter.

There is no harm in spinning the axle if the transfer case is not engaged except for a slight MPG loss.

If you make a sharp turn does it feel like it is grabbing? If yes it is stuck in 4wd, if no drive on until you get it fixed.

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**Author:** ![zac411](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9bcb4/32.png) [@zac411](https://community.cartalk.com/u/zac411)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/4-wheel-drive-on-a-96-ford-explorer/55786/3 "2010-09-30T19:54:30Z")

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yes it feels like it is grabbing and when i take off at first it makes a popping noise right at the front of the front driveshaft the faster i go the faster the popping noise gets and when i get to about 40mph it stops popping i drove it 40 miles to work today no noise on interstate then when i pulled into the parking garage it started popping more then it was and grabbing and actually felt like it was holding the car back from moving forward and one point