Toyota Prado J9 4x4 problems

Hello,
i have a question about the 4 wheel drive from a toyoa prado J9.
right now i am on a trip in namibia with that car but today i tried to drive in the desert with 4 wheel drive. And after one meter i got stuck. The problem is, that just the backwheel are working ( my technical english is not that good).
after i had a look on the middle diferential i saw, that there are several wires not working as you can see on the pictures.
I tried every position at the offroad gearbox but there is no chance to get the 4 wheel drive working.
its an automatic transmission and the wheel hubs are automatic. so i cant lock them by hand.
so is it normal that only the rearwheels are working and the 4x4 is just available when i switch it on?
and does anybody know what these wires are for? when i looked on the wheel hubs, i saw just a wire for the abs and the brake hose, so nothing to lock the wheel hubs automaticaly.
would be great if somebody could help my. if you need more informations let me know.
the prado is from 1998.

The connector that isn't attached to anything in the first picture, looks to me like it should be connected to the grey socket in the top right of the picture. The normal operation of the transfer lever (short stick inside the car) should do the following:-

Lever pulled all the way back - centre diff is open and in high range

Lever pushed forwards one "click" - centre diff engaged and in high range. You should have a yellow light in the instrument cluster. Yellow light flashing means centre diff has not locked in position (drive in an S curve and it should engage). When it does engage the yellow light will be on all the time.

Lever pushed right and forward another "click" - transfer box is in neutral and you will have no drive

Lever pushed all the way forward to the final "click" - Centre diff should engage automatically and the yellow light will be the same as mentioned above. Transfer box is now in Low range.

It does look like this isn't working because at least one plug in the wiring harness is not connected, so check all the connections around the gearbox/transfer box in case any other have come apart.

This sounds like a centre differential problem. The 90 series is full time 4 wheel drive, so you can't actually disengage the front axle. Could you check if the front propshaft is turning when the truck moves. If it is turning, then the problem is the front axle/diff. If not, then your centre differential is in bother. It's chain driven from the main gearbox.

That Transfer Box isn't the same as those on the UK cars. We don't have an electric actuator there.

There are 'part-time' four wheel drive versions (the Ellery Manual shows the mechanics of them) so this thing is alien to what we're used to.

There is a definite wiring problem there. A loose plug and an un-used socket plus what looks like an un-attached earth strap.

I'd only be guessing if I made a comment - I'd need to get it on the bench .

Bob.

at first thanks for all the answers.
i had no internet the last days, thats why i answer now.
i checked all the wires again. the connector doesent fit to the plug you can see on the picture.
so at first i have to find out where that connector belongs to. when i compare the diff and the wires with the reardiff of the car, than that has to be the problem.
there is no "wireconnection" between the car and the diff. normaly the connector has to be on the "car wire harness". than there are the two cables you can see from the connector to the diff, and 4 small ones wich are broken now.
does anybody has the same car or the same gearbox and would be so nice to take a foto where the connector belongs to?
i checked the whole car but i have no clue where that cable belongs to.
i googeld for pictures but i just find pictures from the reardiff.

thanks a lot

( if somebody needs mor pictures or information, let me know)

i think you are missing a length of wire. the uk 90's have an actuator on the rear diff which looks similar to yours on your trans box. the large multi plug connector from the car goes into a small loom which goes to the actuator then forks off to a smaller plug for the actuator position sensor. i notice on your second pic. that the sensor loom and the wires coming out of the actuator are missing.

just a thought. i re newed my diff actuator last week and couldnt work out how it was wired up untill i found this small length of loom which i had taken off three years ago.

cheers.

so the rear acurator has 7 wires in the conector and the middle diff has 6 cables. but both connectors have 2 big wires and the other ones are thinner.

my idea was to repair it like connecting the back diff with the middle one. so when the rear one gets locked, the middle one gets lockt aswell. but i do not know if thats possible or can cause any damages.

i think that the gearbox is from a different car, or that there are several wires missing.
does anybody has a wiring diagramm from that car or knows how the acuator works?
do i have to put just 12v on it to lock the diff or how is it?
we are going to simbabwe next week and therefor we realy need 4x4. so i just need a way to make it running.
many thanks at first.

looking at the first and second photos, it looks like the wires coming out of the actuator have been severed. could be wrong but thats going to make it almost impossible to get that actuator working. im pretty sure you have a short peice of wire harness/loom missing aswell.

you could rig up something straight from the battery via a switch with a little experimenting, but looking at the actuator, you havent got much to play with.

bodging summat up may get you going, someone on here could find you a wire diagram and find out what you have missing for a long term solution.

hope this helps.