88 pathfinder wont engage

Check the vacuum switch under the hood in the center of the firewall...follow vac diag

Put main gears into 1st.
With a gentle foot on the clutch, you can hold pressure on the selector and slowly bring pedal up so you can 'feel' something moving with the stick. If it doesn't go in first go then 'rock the box' with clutch movement at that sweet spot where it just starts to engage (in and out) and it should drop in.

It sounds like the shift cable has either come loose or pulled apart. It's much easier to check with two people. Chock the wheels so it cannot move. Have a friend move the shifter and check that the linkage under the vehicle is moving as the shifter is operated. There are some YouTube videos that can help with diagnosis and replacement

Hi Kamakaroots,

Being an older 4x4 you will need to manually engage the hubs aswell as move the shifter into 4x4.
To engage the hubs you will need to turn the switches on the hub/rim's themselves.

B1gR1g

It doesn't take long to learn when and how to use your truck's 4WD system. Follow these steps and you'll feel confident about engaging the system the next time you need to get out of a slippery situation.

For a conventional system, where you can select 2WD or 4WD, the instructions refer to engaging 4WD. For trucks with permanent 4WD, they refer to locking the center differential.

Time Required: varies
Here's How:

1. Refer to your owner's manual to find out how to engage your truck's 4WD mechanism.
2. When driving in snow, mud, or just going off road, shift into 4WD when you get ready to leave solid ground. If you have lockable front hubs, lock them for those operations.
3. For severe conditions, use low range if available. Before shifting into low range you must either stop or slow down to at least 3 mph to prevent grinding gears.
4. When you return to normal conditions, shift out of 4WD or unlock the center differential. If the shifter doesn't want to move from 4WD or the differential lock stays engaged, don't panic, becaue the problem is normal and is caused by pressure on the gears.
   
   • Try backing in a straight line about 10 feet and try to move the shifter again.
     
   • If the shifter still won't move, try backing in an "S" pattern while trying to move the shifter.
5. If you have lockable hubs, don't forget to unlock them when you return to dry pavement.

Tips:

1. Vehicles with permanent 4WD are set up for everyday driving, but not necessarily for maximum traction on slick surfaces. Engaging the differential lock increases the vehicle's traction capabilities.
2. Do not operate a locked 4WD on dry, hard surfaces. Doing that could cause damage to the driveshafts, differentials or transfer case.

What You Need:
Owner's Manual

Good luck and remember to rate this solution.

Thanks for using Fixya.

try putting in nuetral and then shift into high gear . if still does not work sounds like the 4x4 acctuator is bad

The shifter sheet is worn out or not even there (its rubber) from multiple uses. It eventually decades.

Tons of Samurai enthusiast retailers carry them. Lowrangeoffroad, Petroworks, Trail Tough, and more.

They also carry the one for the tranny shifter.

It sounds like your driveline to the rear wheels is broken. Could be transfer case output shaft to the rear wheels has broken. Try disconnecting the rear drive shaft and see if you can turn it by hand with the transfer case engaged in 2WD. If you can turn it while the Sahara is in gear, the output shaft is no longer connected to the engine for some reason.

Gear selector in neutral, foot on brake, move 4wd gear lever to desired gear, drive.

true you have a locking pin that hold it in gear ..or your thrw ouit bearing could be bad ..or the spring you were talking about is lost its strength..