This (bold) has bugged me for a while. The MY23 owner's manual did not include this first step. That was added from MY24 onwards. Perhaps this was in response to a few early reports where guys wound in the neutral screw until it stopped but still could not get the transfer case into neutral.
Today I took a look at how this neutral stop screw works. The only info available is via the parts catalogue so it took me a while to manipulate a view that shows how the high and low gears are arranged either side of the input shaft, how the sliding selector works, and of course how the neutral stop screw works.
High and Low Range. Anyone that has spent time inside a gearbox will recognise these mechanisms. The cabin HI-LO range selector lever is connected to the gear selector lever via a bowden cable. Movement of the gear selector lever moves the selector fork along the selector rail. The selector fork slides the selector ring along the straight gear cut in the input shaft. As represented here, movement of the selector ring to the left will engage the low gear (low range) and movement to the right will engage the high gear (high range). Power is then transmitted through other gears to the centre differential and the forward and rear driveshaft flanges (all deleted for clarity).
The Neutral Stop Screw. As
@Blackwolf correctly deduces the neutral stop screw engages in the selector fork to lock it in place. When the screw is wound in the tip of the screw rough aligns to the inverted V notch in the fork. That makes placing the first step of placing the shifter to mid-travel important so the screw will lead into the notch. Once the screw is bottomed out the selector fork and selector ring are mechanically locked between the high and low gears so drive from the input shaft is interrupted, i.e. a neutral position. The stop screw provides a positive lockout so the transfer case will remain in neutral during transportation or recovery.
Enjoy.
View attachment 7917566