rear axle stuck in EL

[tercle]

It appears the rear wheels of my 1985 SR5 are stuck in EL.
I didn't put it in EL on-purpose, but made a sharp left turn into a driveway in 4wd. Then I couldn't put it in reverse.

Thye only way to drive it is start it with clutch pedal down, leave stick in neutral, and release clutch.
If I put the stick in any gear, the front and rear axles fight each other and the car won't move. Even if I try to put the trans in EL.
"EL" is lit on dash.
For several minutes, my turn signals didn't work.
I don't see how that has anything to do with it, but it happened at the same time.

Any ideas?

[xirdneh]

is that a manual tranny
assuming it is you must have bound up the gears in the tranny by turning on a not so slippery surface
you need to get it out of 4wd
unfortunatly its easier to do that when backing up in reverse (in a straight line) and you cannot get it in reverse
may have to jack up all four wheels off the ground and play around with it

[tercle]

Yes. Manual transmission.
I was in 1st gear when I did this.

I will find some mud or gravel and try to get it out of 4wd.

Why is the EL leght on? Is the switch for it in the transfer case?

[tercle]

Thanks, x.
I found some slippery grass and got it out of 4wd.
Shifting and driving in FWD seems to work normally now.

I hope I didn't mess anything up permanently in 4wd drive.

[irowiki]

For the limited amount of time you had it, nah.

Saw a CL ad where the dude said it was stuck in 4WD and he drove it for a few years... I noped away from that one.

[Petros]

check all four tires have same air pressure, are the same size and preferably same brand of tires, and all are worn the same amount. usually if you get all 4 tires the same rolling dia/same amount of wear,etc. this is not nearly as big a problem. typically this will happen when you got one low tire, and you go into 4wd, and than it will not come out because of the pressure on the drive train this will cause (one tire wants to go a slightly different speed).

Not likely you caused any harm, I have forgotten to take it out of 4wd lots of times. I used 4wd daily to get home, next morning I drive 10 miles on hwy to get to work and discover when I pull into parking space it acts odd, wheels skip, and remember I forgot to put it in 2wd. so I try and make it a habit of pulling it out of 4wd when I park in my driveway for the night (it is all down hill gravel roads to the highway from there).

[tercle]

Right front is definitely low.
It was raining, and I needed 4wd to get up a hill.

Didn't notice that the road was getting grippier.

This 85 has been boringly dependable and I have neglected it.

Just weird. Just saw one of the guys from the tercel4wd site the night before.