4X4 is jammed!
 

I recently bought a used land rover Discovery. The model year was 1997 and I am having issues with the 4X4, all wheel drive option on the vehicle. When I try to push the stick forward from 4X2 into 4X4 it sticks, well it doesn't budge at all. I am not sure what would be causing this. Can someone around here give me a bit of direction here?

Ummm....these trucks are all time 4 wheel drive. You can't be shifting from 4x2 to 4x4. Read this https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...er-case-40801/ and then watch this https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...l-works-40804/ then ask any questions you might have about how to operate the diff lock.

The discovery is full time 4x4 and that "stick" is for the low/high gear and the center diff lock, not from 4x2 to 4x4. It looks like it is stuck in low gear (low is all the way forward and high is all the way back.) Are you getting movement when you put it in drive? You might have to take the center console off to get to the transfer case and put some lube on the lever mechanism.
Even though this is for unlocking the diff, it will help you get stuck out of low gear. You just dont need to do the part about crawling under it to see if the diff is locked.
Fixing a Land Rover Discovery Stuck Differential Lock or Transfer Case

Well the good news is that is stuck in high for the time being. I have to wait until tomorrow before I can take a look since it is now dark outside. I will let you know what the outcome is tomorrow evening. Thank you for the helpful tips and video.

Sounds like your CDL is frozen, do a search, Danny Lee has an excellent thread outlining how to fix, it also has pics.

Probably not a permanent solution, but on the 95 we just picked up it won't budge at a stop, but if you do it while rolling at 2-4 MPH it slides right into any selection without issue.

I'd try it out some more before concluding the linkage is frozen. Sometimes you need to unload the drivetrain to get it to budge. Try rolling a couple mph in neutral and see if it shifts, try reversing 30 feet then drive forward, neutral, shift while rolling, blip the throttle a little in neutral and then try to push it into gear as the rpms get down near idle.

Also, try draining and refilling the fluid in the transfercase. I had an intermittent problem with mine -- sometimes it would shift very smoothly into low, but other times (usually on the trail) I couldn't push it into low for anything. After I changed the fluid it works everytime, all the time.

that's normal. i have to do that to get hi to lo or back from lo to hi

I think what happens is if the dogs don't happen to be in position to mesh, you cannot engage the dogs unless you turn them a bit so they mesh together. I'm not sure but I think you can turn them one of two ways: rolling a little or blipping the throttle enough that the output shaft of the torque converter moves a little (in neutral). Of course if you try to mesh them with too much spin on the shaft, you'll grind 'em. By rolling, I think you'd be moving the dogs on the other shaft. It's kind of like a manual tranmission with no synchros.

It is really pretty simple to diagnose; if you can feel the detents in the "H" patternas you move the shifter then your problem is likely serious and inside, if it just feels like you are pretty much bending stuff around (most likely you are) then the linkage is frozen.

First, here is the roversnorth parts breakout of what we are talking about:

http://www.roversnorth.com/store/ima...D-page37.1.jpg

Your shift knob screws to the vertical shaft below #43; that is your shifter in the cabin.

1. fore-aft movement turns a collar on a splined shaft that actuates the high low dog. This is the part shown between #25 and #27, with the pinch bolt above it.

2. port-starboard movement pushes a shaft inside the splined shaft (indicated above) that attaches to a long vertical linkage (surrounded by #s 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22) that eventually rotates a small lever on top of the transfer case that allows the collar to slide forward and engage the dogs for the CDL.

Here is a video showing what happens inside the transfer case when the arm is rotated:

LT230 Difflock Mechanism - YouTube

Here is an excellent video showing what NOT to do when trying to fix it, but the gentleman provides some excellent tips and you can get some idea of how it all goes together. The little u shaped clip that he complains about is attached to the part that rotates in the video above:

Diff Locks Last Stand (Rated PG) - YouTube

All in all it took me about ten minutes to take the center console out, another half an hour drilling the rivets out and 30 seconds to spray with PBl'aster and I had a working transfer case again.

And a side note - due to the way it is constructed, the dash light really can't go on unless the dogs are engaged, so it is the best indicator of whether it is working or not. The light's function is also easy to test.