New guy here, just bought an 05 Durango and the shift motor went bad almost immediately. Was driving down the hwy when the 4lo light started flickering and then the transfer case shifted into neutral and wouldn't shift back. I've got everything disassembled and ready to put the new motor on but I can't figure out for the life of me where the shaft index should be to go into AWD. I can manually shift the case into 3 positions, should there be 4 for AWD, 4hi, 4lo and Neutral? Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance...

2005 Durango limited
5.7L hemi.
NV244 transfer case.

 

So apparently I was having a "duh" moment. If you can shift the case 3 times that means there are 4 selectable positions, 1 being where you started from. So for posterity's sake if some poor sap needs this information somewhere down the line if you look at the shaft like a clock Neutral is 7 o'clock or Position 1, AWD is 6 o'clock or position 2. I assume that 5 an 4 o'clock are 4LOCK and 4LOW respectively.

here is the whole procedure in a snapshot.
1. Remove the wheel well covers, easier access to the exhaust flange.
2. Disconnect the the exhaust pipe from the exhaust manifold on both sides and lower it. You'll find this is necessary to gain the clearance you need to remove the drive shaft
3. Remove the skid plate
4. Disconnect the front drive shaft and remove, clip the rear clamp off the boot closest to the transfer case (don't forget to mark the flange and yoke). To remove the shaft push the flange up and towards the engine, you'll find a narrow gap just big enough in order to slide the shaft off the transfer case.
5. Remove 3 bolts to the shift motor, disconnect wiring harness.

If you have to shift the transfer case I used a pair of 8" vice grips locked around the splines, be careful not to damage it. The transfer case shaft wasn't easy to move but it shifted with a good push. If you're unable to do that you may have more damage to the TC. The motor was a real PIA to match the splines up, took me a good hour of cussing and yelling, the position has to be exact and there's not much room to work.

It all sounds easy right? But it took me a good 6-8 hours, most of that time was fighting the rusty exhaust flange bolts and getting the motor to seat properly. Whoever designed those exhaust bolt retainer clips should be shot....

 

Thank you for posting a follow up as this may help someone in the future.

 

For what appears to be a common problem there's surprisingly little info available. Hope it helps someone else..

 

After reading many posts about this issue, 2 weeks ago when I bought my 05 awd Limited, I just unplugged the shift motor. Drives great, just a service 4wd light on. Can be due many things I will get to it sometime down the road.Motor, corrosion in pins on computer, switch, bad ground etc. I won't use 4wd any time soon, so leaving it in Awd won't affect me.