HELP (Transfer case locks up?)!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't understand what happened and I need some help bad! I refilled my case and lube up all my zirk fittings. I went for a drive and all is well after about 4 miles of driving. All of a sudeen I'm hearing this kaclunk kaclunk sound from the transmission area. The sound varies with drive speed but goes away after I push the clutch in. I'm thinkin it must be a tool I forgot or the ebrake cable hitting a drive shaft. I'm coming to a stop sign and I let off the gas leaving the clutch engaged. All of a sudden my wheels lock up in the middle of the street! WTF! I get out and push the jeep to the shoulder and crawl under. I'm thinking the ebrake shoes have come loose so i pull the rear drive shaft and limp home. It's still making the noise but I don't know now cause I've got the fronts locked and unsure if that adds to noise factor. Guys I'm so dissapointed. I've been working so hard on my jeep after I got it and now this. What is going on? Could I have done this by just adding grease and gear oil???? Help!

 

Re: H E L P !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1) what was the condition of the oil before you drained it?
2) did you use the right oil (ie 90w)?
3) is the noise louder when you turn corners?

 

Re: H E L P !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

removing the rear drive shaft did you no good. If in 4wd it also stops the front output on a d18. I was cocerned by your other post when you said you had added 1/2 gallon. That is seriously low. Could be alot of things but it don't sound good.

JB

 

Re: H E L P !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't sleep so I went back out to the jeep and retraced my steps up to the incident. I looked in my haynes manual and it say's 80w-90 gear oil for the xcase. Well, I poured in Super Tech sae 85w-140 and I did not drain the old oil out, just added until it ran out the filler hole. I did not add any fluid to the transmission. Could it be the gear oil I stuck in it? Could it be the ebrake? The thing that gets me is that my jeep ran fine other than the whine before I did my "maintenance". Well the whine is gone but now it clunks.

I feel like an idiot and Im so bummed it's unbelievable...

 

The tranny and case sort of share oil through the rear tranny bearing so if the t case was that low then the tranny prolly wasn't much better off... and that 140W ain't the right oil.. too viscous.. anyhow as mentioned above drain ALL the oil and pull the xfer case pan and get a good look in there. You may wanna pull the lid off the t-14 too. If all looks of refill BOTH with 80W-90 and see what happens!

BUBBA

 

Ok. I guess it's possible that a slight lack of oil could cause the intemediate shaft & bearings to wear out. Or, maybe it was just their time anyway. That's what happened to mine and several - like 10 - teeth broke off two gears. Lucky for me none of the teeth jammed.

If it's gear teeth in the t-case you can see the intermediate gear from the cover plate on the back. And, you can remove that without draining out the oil. You need to drop the pan to inspect the lower gear and give the intemediate shaft the wiggle test.

Good Luck.