Engaging 4WD High/Low

[keeffe88]

Gday all,
Time to pick your brains again.
I moved my series 3 the other weekend, just around the backyard, but because it didnt have any brakes yet i wanted to move it in low range so i could stall under compression.

My problem is:
To engage low range i depressed the yellow knob whilst in high and changed the red knob down to low range. As the red knob hit low, the yellow knob dissengaged??? My understanding is that the yellow knob should not dissengage until the red knob is moved back to high range?

OR

Is low range selected by simply moving the red knob to low without depressing the yellow knob?

If not what are some of the possible reasons that low range will not engage?

Again excuse my ignorance, im new to this. However i will say, my short trip around the backyard, even without brakes, you couldnt wipe the smile off my face, quite a fun little drive. I think the bug may have bitten....

Your help appreciated

Cheers, Josh

[Phoenix]

When you go into low range the yellow knob is supposed to pop back up ;)

you can just engage low range with the red lever though.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Josh

You sound a little confused here.

The yellow knob is to engage four wheel drive while in High Range.

To disengage four wheel drive in High Range, you need to stop select Low Range by pulling the lever with the red knob to the rear, as soon as you do this the yellow knob will pop up, then select High Range by moving the red knob forward.

In Low Range your Series Land Rover* is always in four wheel drive.

Diana :)

* The very early 80" Series Land Rovers prior to 1951 had a different four wheel drive system.

[keeffe88]

Thanks Diana and Pheonix,

Seems I was just a little confused. I was going by the plate that states only how to engage high range. My thought was the yellow knob was to engage 4wd low and high, however this seems not the case.

Thanks for clearing that up and seems its all working as it should, which is good news in terms of my list of things to fix :).

Cheers, Josh

[ladas]

I love to see a colour co-ordinated response :D;)


Josh

You sound a little confused here.

The yellow knob is to engage four wheel drive while in High Range.

To disengage four wheel drive in High Range, you need to stop select Low Range by pulling the lever with the red knob to the rear, as soon as you do this the yellow knob will pop up, then select High Range by moving the red knob forward.

In Low Range your Series Land Rover* is always in four wheel drive.

Diana :)

* The very early 80" Series Land Rovers prior to 1951 had a different four wheel drive system.

[emus]

So, Lotz-a-Landies, Diana,..........I'm to understand from all this, that ,whilst driving along in High Range 2wd, ....4wd can be engaged by pressing down on the yellow knob, but then 4wd can't be disengaged by trying to pull up the yellow knob, without changing down to low range either by skillful doubledeclutching with the perfect revs, or (more safely), stopping, going to low ,when the yellow knob automatically pops up,........then move to high range in 2wd,
Correct?...........(I'm a new owner novice as well)

Cheers Pete

[Phoenix]

Yes, you can not get out of 4wd by pulling up the yellow one, it's locked down. However you don't have to put the red knob all the way into gear to get the yellow knob to pop back up. I'm not 100% sure if that means that you are out of 4wd, but i'm pretty sure it is ;)

[JDNSW]

Yes, once the yellow knob pops up, front drive will disengage when the red lever is moved forward*.

Just a word of caution - if you have free wheeling front hubs, do not engage four wheel drive while moving unless they are locked.

John

* Actually, the situation when the red lever is moved forward is that pressure is on a spring to disengage the drive. If there is a lot of pressure on the teeth of the dog, for example, if you have a lot of windup due to driving on a hard surface, it may not immediately disengage, and the same may happen if the selector shafts are rusty and do not move freely.

[Blknight.aus]

if your tcase is in orginal order and as per specs you must engage low range before the hi-range knob will pop up and it should do this by itself thanks to the spring you can see underneath it pushing on the tunnel cover.

you can mod the case so that the yellow knob can pop up as soon as you hit nuetral so you dont have to do the stop to go into low thing. but more often than not you wont have a reason to and the series rover being the speed deamon that it is your friends wont notice that youve stopped to do the hilohi shuffle to get out of 4 hi.

[Aaron IIA]

* The very early 80" Series Land Rovers prior to 1951 had a different four wheel drive system.

You have just got to love the little ring pull.

Aaron.

[isuzurover]

you can mod the case so that the yellow knob can pop up as soon as you hit nuetral so you dont have to do the stop to go into low thing. but more often than not you wont have a reason to and the series rover being the speed deamon that it is your friends wont notice that youve stopped to do the hilohi shuffle to get out of 4 hi.

You can also mod the case to have single-stick hi/lo/2/4 selector, and give you the option of 2WD Low Range.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

* The very early 80" Series Land Rovers prior to 1951 had a different four wheel drive system.

You have just got to love the little ring pull.

Aaron.
Aaron

In fact the late 1950 and very early 1951 80" had the yellow button but retained the freewheel unit constant 4 wheel drive.

A little confusing if you are used to the later system and don't understand the only "in reverse" thing of the early system.

You can also mod the case to have single-stick hi/lo/2/4 selector, and give you the option of 2WD Low Range.
With the frequency of breakage of Rover axle halfshafts in high range, I'm not sure that I would want to go 2 wheel drive in low range.

For those that are interested, the series forward control and 1 ton transfer case had a helical low gearset in constant mesh, so you could change from high to low or low to high without stopping. :)

Diana

[Blknight.aus]

unless its a SWB hes talking about its got a sals.. if hes got the original box in it low 2 shouldnt be a problem he'll run out of power,traction or gearbox strength before he breaks the sals.

(of course repeated abuse will break anything so if he drives like a drift queen then all bets are off)

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I thought that was what I was saying when I said Rover axles.

To be more clear next time, perhaps I should state "With the frequency of breakage of the axle halfshafts, in vehicles with Rover differentials fitted to the rear, when in high range"!

[Blknight.aus]

my bad, Ive gotten used to some of the guys at work calling all landies Rovers (even range rovers) and refering to me as "The rover nut"

[Aaron IIA]

In fact the late 1950 and very early 1951 80" had the yellow button but retained the freewheel unit constant 4 wheel drive.

A little confusing if you are used to the later system and don't understand the only "in reverse" thing of the early system.

Interesting. I will have to look out for one of these vehicles.


For those that are interested, the series forward control and 1 ton transfer case had a helical low gearset in constant mesh, so you could change from high to low or low to high without stopping. :)

Diana

Why shouldn't you be able to do this with the straight cut gears of the common transfer case? My SIIA currently has no first gear (and consequently no reverse gear). I start in second low, then change to second high. When downchanging to go up a steep hill, I then change back down to low while still moving. It is just another crash gear. It never crunches, as I get the revolutions correct.

Aaron.

[isuzurover]

Interesting. I will have to look out for one of these vehicles.



Why shouldn't you be able to do this with the straight cut gears of the common transfer case? My SIIA currently has no first gear (and consequently no reverse gear). I start in second low, then change to second high. When downchanging to go up a steep hill, I then change back down to low while still moving. It is just another crash gear. It never crunches, as I get the revolutions correct.

Aaron.

You are correct, changing from high-low is just like changing from 2-1 in a S1/SII/SIIA gearbox.