HELP! Transfer case failure????

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05ram4x4

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I was sitting in stopped traffic on a street and as I hit the gas to move, I heard a loud sound and then nothing but grinding. As I hit the gas the grinding got louder. Truck wouldn't move under power at all. Luckily I was moving enough to roll to the side of the road. I wonder if my chain snapped in the transfer case...but I thought it was a direct connection through it to the rear axle. I had an issue with the rear of my overdrive unit breaking off and the transfer case sitting on my skid plate for a while. Could the splines of just worn off over time and finally given up? That's the grinding sound I hear? I'm going to try and pull the transfer case tomorrow and take a look. Also, is replacing the overdrive unit as easy as pulling off another one and sliding it on my transmission? Kinda amazes me that the transfer case doesn't get any support other than being bolted to the transmission.

Any thoughts are appreciated!
 

dudeman2009

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I'm not going to stab at what is grinding, there is a lot of things that can grind. Any splined shaft can. Your transfer case is likely fine, the chain is attached to a dog clutch, its disengaged when in 2wd. Yes the input of the transfercase is directly connected to the rear output.

It is a ford, but my buddies dad had his truck do the exact same thing, he shattered a gear on output shaft and it was grinding on the countershaft gear. I've seen fords with damaged rear axle bolts where the transmission output yoke slipped out enough to bind and grind on the splined output shaft.

It could be from anywhere down there really, the only way to find out for sure is to take it apart. You can drop the pan on the tranny to see if there are broken pieces in it.
 
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05ram4x4

05ram4x4

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I will have to start tearing it apart tomorrow and see what I find. Thanks for the input.
 
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05ram4x4

05ram4x4

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I know this is older now, but the grinding was because the transfer case wasn't sitting straight on the output shaft of the transmission, which resulted in the input splines smoothing off.

When I pulled the overdrive unit and transfer case, i put them together on the ground and I could cause the transfer case to slip on the overdrive unit with only hand pressure.
 

dudeman2009

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That would do it. Thanks for coming back with that. I think its odd that the Tcase was off like that, but I guess there are plenty of ways it could have occurred.
 
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05ram4x4

05ram4x4

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It was sitting like that because the flange on the overdrive unit snapped off. That's why I replaced both.

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