This past week I took the Durango to the beach. It was a 5 hr drive. When I got there the hotel was not ready so I decided to spend some time on the beach until it was ready. I went to shift into 4 wheel hi. The lever locked into the 4hi position but no 4 wheel drive and no 4wd locked light on the dash. Same thing for 4 wheel lo also. I still drove it onto the beach but I was careful where I took it as to not get stuck. After spending a couple of hours on the beach, I packed up to go check in and when I started the Durango, the 4wd locked light was on and the 4 wheel drive was working perfectly. Once off the beach I went back to 2 wheel drive. I tried it again after getting to the hotel to see if it would work. Nothing. The next morning when the truck was cool, it went into 4wd perfectly again. After driving on the beach for a while the light went out and I could tell I was no longer in 4wd. I found a place to park and spend a couple of hours enjoying the beach and when I started it up, everything worked again. Seems like when the truck is cool, everything works fine. When the engine gets warm is when I have problems. Could I have a bad actuator? Please help!!!

 

Your transfer case is manually shifted, so no acutators. You can check that all the grommets are in place on the shift linkage. It's not impossible for the switch that turns the light on to be sticking either.

 

If the switch is sticking, would that also not allow the 4 wheel drive to engage? The shift lever feels nice and tight. It seems to lock firmly in place.

 

Switch isn't going to cause problems. Verify that the linkage is actually moving the lever on the transfer case.

 

Thanks for your advice. I will check it out. I am not that knowledgeable on the workings of 4 wheel drive. Could the linkage need adjusting? I did have it fixed last year. The common problem with the linkage breaking happened to me.

 

I think things changed for 2000, but on my 99 there is a metal rod with a bolt to tighten onto it for adjustment.