evening all! My hi/lo shifter wont let me shift out of hi, however, i can still get over to the lock. After some research, it comes down to the hi/lo solenoid needing to be replaced/removed. I got under the truck today, since some have said its not to hard to get to from underneath, as opposed to ripping the whole center console out and drilling the rivets.

I can seem to feel or see the damn thing and was wondering if it were easier to reach from the front of the truck, or from the rear(e-brake side). Is it going to be easier to use a wrench or small socket to get out the bolts? any help, pictures or video, would be greatly appreciated. thanks again!

 

What year D2?

You mentioned Diff Lock so I'm gonna guess it's an 04 with the CDL linkage. On 03/04 the interlock solenoid is actually on the 4H/N/4L Shift Linkage Assembly (older 99-02 D2's had the interlock solenoid on the actual transfer case). You might be able to reach up there with something long and be able to push the interlock rod out of the way, but to properly diagnose it you'll have to pull the console out, and either remove the 4 bolts securing the linkage to the plate and try to wiggle it down to where you can see it, or drill out the rivets and remove the plate to fully see what is going on.

On my 02 Kalahari it was stuck not allowing me to engage N/4L. Since I have an 02 the interlock solenoid was up on top of the transfer case. I waited until I was going to install an 04 CDL Linkage before attacking it. I removed it, disabled it, and re-installed it, and just wired in the 04 interlock solenoid. Works great except now I have a small leak from the old interlock solenoid assembly as I must have smeared the RTV on re-installing it (very tight location).

I plan on attacking it to seal it up, and this time I'm going to remove the entire OEM cover and install a flat plate in it's place with some RTV.

 

Best4x4 - You are correct in assuming its an '04. im hoping that if the solenoid is actually on the shifter assembly, that might make it easier. I guess i will have to just rip out the center console to know for sure. thanks.

 

The solenoid was in the shifter on my '03. I left it in place and ground the tab off the shifter instead. Easy preventive measure.

 

is there a way to gethe to it from under the vehicle or is the only way in, through the center console?

 

Only way I think you could see it decently was if you dropped the front driveshaft. Besides that you will need to pull the black metal plate to get to it.

It's an 04 then for sure the interlock is mounted on the shifter itself.

The Rivets are a PITA... When I did my 04 CDL install 50% of the darn time I spent on the install was drilling the silly rivets out... Once out I just used some nice Phillips head screws so removal in the future will be a breeze. Have no clue why LR didn't just use some screws in the first place, but I guess being LR they had plenty of rivets laying around.

 

So i finally got a chance to get the disco into the auto hobby shop here on base today. took all of the center console out and everything up to the point where i needed to drill the rivets while at home. drilled all the rivets at the shop, moved the shifter plate out and bam!....there she was.

Just for fun, i wanted to see what would happen if i manually pushed in the solenoid. I put the tans shifter in neutral and with some good force, pushed on it and it popped in like its supposed to. It was clearly stuck to the point that it couldn't move on its own. So now that it is functioning to what i consider normally, i made the decision to go ahead and pull the solenoid, just in case it wanted to act up again down the road.

I made sure to lube things up before putting it all back together. I picked up a stanley rivet gun at the hardware store prior to tearing it all apart, along with some 3/16 aluminum rivets. Everything went back together pretty smoothly. However, i did have to remove the center console again because i forgot to put the foam padding back in over the shifter plate.

Once everything was back together, i used a large empty parking lot to test it all out. even with the solenoid out, the shifter seems to be firmly in HI and LO, so i have no doubt that it will ever pop out of gear. I do have to say that the Lucky8 CDL video did help out, however, it does make it out to be a lot easier than it actually is. Maybe if i were a blonde chick, it may have been easier.

If anyone needs help doing theres, i would be glad to lend some help....via the internet of course.

 

Great job, but I'd have put screws in the place of the OEM rivets to make getting to it in the future a breeze.

 

I thought about it also and definitely will if i ever have to open her up again......fingers crossed for not!

 

I installed an 04 shifter in my 2001 last January and it really isn't too difficult to remove the center console. I used screws in mine putting it back together also.