really sucks, especially when you're 500 miles from home. got stuck on the beach in Coos Bay, OR, about 3 feet from a 4 foot drop into the surf that would have washed off the bus (finally), but while it was resting on its side. after some creative recovery, we got off the ledge and started looking for a way off the beach and back to the dunes. that's when the dreaded "service 4WD" indicator showed up. i thought that only happened to H3s ! wound up going back the way we came, but went down the surf side of the ledge, since the ruts would have probably been nasty to maneuver through on the top. back through 2 miles of massive washboard (new rod hall shocks are awesome) and on to solid ground. called my dealership to ask the techs if there's some trick to try to get out of 4LO. all they had was to disconnect the battery and try it again. aired up, took the winch off and disconnected the battery. stood around shootin' the breeze, and my friend said maybe we got sand packed into some mechanical part. so i crawled under the bus and noticed that the 8 pin connector for the transfer case motor/encoder was flapping in the breeze. just 2 months ago i was driving over scrub brush in the desert and the cable stayed connected, but for some reason driving over the sand dunes popped it loose. so, if it happens to your H2, take a look at the connector that's mounted on the bracket for the t-case motor. it's got one of those ***** shaped clips that are supposed to hold it on to the motor bracket, but mine came loose (broke-dick GM engineering), but i still don't know what could have pulled the connector apart. it's on the driver's side, bottom of the t-case. plugged it back in, reconnected the battery, and we were outta there. 1081 miles in 3 days, i'm gettin' too old for this ****.

 

still better than a day at work . . . .

 

Good pic. You needed a new "beach pic".

So the new shocks held up good? would recomend?

I was gonna say to tape the plug together. But I guess it's better to rip a plug apart than to rip wires if it gets caught again.

 

definitely recommend the shocks. i still hit the fender well on deep ruts if i'm going too fast, but it doesn't bounce a couple times like it did with the bilsteins.

i'll zip tie the broke-d!ck connector back to the motor encoder bracket and leave it at that. looks like what the techs tried to do, but the zip tie came loose and allowed the cable to hang down. still can't figure out how sand pulled it apart though. and you're right, i was in need of a new beach pic, the last one was too shiny with all that chrome on it . . . .[:'(]