My case had had a weep from the rear output shaft for some time, and I checked the level once (a while ago, I admit) I had to drop the gearbox after last trip to get the clutch working again, but since then, I had a really loud bearing noise coming from somewhere.
Yesterday, I thought I had better investigate before I drove the car on the road again.
This is what I drained out the transfer case. You'll note that's not oil, and nowhere near 1.5 litres
And this was the mess inside the case:
Yuk!
There's some light corrosion of the gear teeth faces. It's not ideal, but I'll put them back in and see how it is. Of course, every bearing and seal is toast. (except the front output pilot bearing, which is clean and bright. - lucky, because that's the hard one to pull.
I've got to say, it's a testament to Redline oil that despite having dropped all the oil and ingesting a heap of muddy water, there's very little corrosion on any of the steel parts and the case hadn't seized - it still shifted fine and took a hiding on the last trip I had it on, when it clearly had no oil in it.
Anyway, I've ordered a full case rebuild kit from Lowrange, and one of these:
So I can put the detent ball back and stop it popping out of drive on the highway.
Once I have one I can work out where to grind a stock shift rail to emulate it.
anyway, moral of the story - check you transfer case oil level!
Steve.
