Please send me your old ZF transmission pan and filter

[Clark Kent]

OK I have loosened the shifter by manipulating it about 50 times.
Yet despite two hands on the shifter and moving it from L to H in 1mm increments it will not nail Goldilocks. It just suddenly slips into H.
Not something you want in an emergency and hence the option to remotely unlock the ZF remains on the table.
This might just be an issue for MY23 Grenadiers, I don't know, wouldn't know why. Has anyone with a MY23 been able to find the sweet spot, and if so 1 or 2 hands on the knob?
Don't be dirty!

I have a hot date booked with my vehicle tomorrow morning (diffs, TC and engine oil + filter change). I'll have a play with this and post back.

 

[TD5-90]

Has anyone with a MY23 been able to find the sweet spot, and if so 1 or 2 hands on the knob?

Rather: No. As already said.
No stable N, minimal movement of the stick (without even touching it) causes grinding.
"-B" transfer case.
May be related to that cables...

 

[Texas Grenadier]

So, back to “Please send me your old ZF transmission pan and filter"? lol.

 

[Tazzieman]

So, back to “Please send me your old ZF transmission pan and filter"? lol.

Threads go offtrack. It's the nature of the beast

 

[Clark Kent]

I have a hot date booked with my vehicle tomorrow morning (diffs, TC and engine oil + filter change). I'll have a play with this and post back.

Ok. It's super sensitive on my MY23 but I got there. I can't say if it's any different to other MY. Probably more about the lack of use of my range shifter than MY specific.
If I rely on feeling for the mid travel/neutral point I'll miss it. The short travel and sticky controls puts me into HIGH or LOW range. You cannot be half-pregnant, right?

I found a cheat mode

Have the key on and watch the GEAR display on the infotainment screen. Slowly ease back on the shifter towards LOW range. Imagine your partner is watching you at the tool shop counter. No sudden moves. As soon as the HIGH caption disappears stop moving the shifter. Now wait a second. The TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL message will then display because the transfer case is not in HIGH or LOW. It's in the 'tween position, which is neutral.

The L is flashing on the telltale panel at this point. The sensor in the transfer case can see it is not in HIGH anymore but it's not yet in LOW either so the control logic treats it as an error via the amber message TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL. That's useful for our purpose.
On my vehicle I can hear light gear contact when I push it in neutral so it's very close to engaging into LOW range. I would not be moving my vehicle too far at more than a crawl pace until the neutral stop screw was applied. Your vehicle might be different.

So to put that into practice:
If you have power you can use the lights and message display as an aid to finding neutral.
If you're fully in Weekend At Bernie's mode without any power then it's gonna be a bit more work. Practice with the lights on until you can do it in the dark

Without the benefit of the cheat lights, and if you can't move your vehicle to test it, you won't 100% know you're in neutral until you start recovery and watch the wheels. If they're dragging you are not in neutral

 

[Dokatd]

Ok. It's super sensitive on my MY23 but I got there. I can't say if it's any different to other MY. Probably more about the lack of use of my range shifter than MY specific.
If I rely on feeling for the mid travel/neutral point I'll miss it. The short travel and sticky controls puts me into HIGH or LOW range. You cannot be half-pregnant, right?

I found a cheat mode

Have the key on and watch the GEAR display on the infotainment screen. Slowly ease back on the shifter towards LOW range. Imagine your partner is watching you at the tool shop counter. No sudden moves. As soon as the HIGH caption disappears stop moving the shifter. Now wait a second. The TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL message will then display because the transfer case is not in HIGH or LOW. It's in the 'tween position, which is neutral.

The L is flashing on the telltale panel at this point. The sensor in the transfer case can see it is not in HIGH anymore but it's not yet in LOW either so the control logic treats it as an error via the amber message TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL. That's useful for our purpose.
On my vehicle I can hear light gear contact when I push it in neutral so it's very close to engaging into LOW range. I would not be moving my vehicle too far at more than a crawl pace until the neutral stop screw was applied. Your vehicle might be different.

So to put that into practice:
If you have power you can use the lights and message display as an aid to finding neutral.
If you're fully in Weekend At Bernie's mode without any power then it's gonna be a bit more work. Practice with the lights on until you can do it in the dark

Without the benefit of the cheat lights, and if you can't move your vehicle to test it, you won't 100% know you're in neutral until you start recovery and watch the wheels. If they're dragging you are not in neutral

Glad you sorted it out. I do think that there is a fair bit of stretch to the cable setup as you use it. Probably makes the neutral gate feel a bit wider.

 

[Clark Kent]

Glad you sorted it out. I do think that there is a fair bit of stretch to the cable setup as you use it. Probably makes the neutral gate feel a bit wider.

I enjoy a good collaboration where we all learn something.
I think we've nearly exhausted this topic. It's produced something useful and given @Rok_Dr some material to work with. I'll shortly reach out to an admin and ask to move all this chatter to a dedicated topic so @scottg can get back to his ZF oil pan project.

 

[Tazzieman]

@Clark Kent I've managed it. But with the engine on it was harder (with some gear noise) than in carwash mode.
After the TRANSFER CASE IN NEUTRAL warning I then got ESC warnings as well. But I think I'm now in a position to put the TC into N position if needed.
And as you noted , the line ""Position the transfer case selector midwaybetween LOW and HIGH range" is in the updated owner's manual.