Hey everyone,

Truck is an '89 F250 7.5L

was driving around the property pulling some trees around and had the truck in 4L. Nothing real serious, only had it in 4WD to begin with because I was on slippery grass.

Parked it for a few days. Went to drive it on the road, so I unlocked the hubs and took off.

Immediately realized I was still in 4L, so I pulled over to make sure I really unlocked the hubs (which I had). I ran the gear lever through the modes/settings (2h, 4h, 4l), locked and unlocked the hubs, drove backwards, etc. Couldn't get it out of 4L.

Turned around and headed back to the house and noticed a metal clanking coming from the right front wheel area..

Any thoughts? Can I disconnect the transfer case for the front just to get it on the road temporarily, or just to the shop? What can I look at to see if something is broken, loose, etc?

Thanks

- Brad

 

It sounds like you have manual hubs and they are unlocked. If so, removing the front driveshaft won't get you much. Either way you are going to be in 2WD-low, it's just whether your front driveshaft and axle are spinning or not. You can drive on the road like that, but your engine will be screaming, so keep the speeds down.

Now if your still getting the crowhopping of turning on hard surfaces in 4WD, even though the hubs are unlocked, then it just sounds like you've got the driveline loaded up so it won't release. If that's the case just jack up a front wheel and try to turn it by hand. That ought to free up that hub, and then once it's disengaged everything else should follow suit.

If your hubs are really disengaged (not just the dial, but the internals actually moved), then when you turn on hard surfaces you might get a little clunking from the U-joints, but no crowhopping. If that's the case, then you've got something wrong with your t.case or the linkage. If you can't see anything wrong with the linkage (crawl under and look) I'd guess you're in for a t.case rebuild.

 

alrighty, well, a couple things to check out.

I'll report back after the weekend.

thanks

 

so, ....

jacked up driver side front. Confirmed hub was in unlocked position. Transfer case shifter is in 2H. Spun wheel. Wheel spins freely.

Locked hub. Wheel spins but the front axle spins to the front diff. could see front drive shaft spinning. Locked other hub (pass side, wheel on ground) and I couldn't spin wheel.

Unlocked hub on pass side. Confirmed wheel spins again, and spins the axle to the diff. Front drive shaft still spinning.

put transfer case shifter into 4H. Wheel would not spin. Could see the axle trying to spin into the diff, and the diff trying to spin the front drive shaft.

I did the same thing on the other side. and it was all the same result.

This tells me everything seems to be working right? I've got the hubs unlocked and the T Case is in 2H, and everything in front is spinning.

I hopped and and drove it down the street. Got the hopping while turning around in driveway. On the road it seems as if it is in 4L still. I don't know, maybe 4H. Top speed is about 20 at thats at the top of the gears.

I don't know a lot about this stuff, but logic doesn't seem to be playing fair here. if everything is spinning when shifter is in 2H, how is it that the T Case is still turning the drive shaft when driving?

In any case, I'm guessing this means I need a rebuild job, or rebuilt/used installed. Just curious about the mechanics of it all at this point since I'm a bit confused.

Thanks

- Brad

 

This happened to me a while back. The 4 LO shift fork is broke. When that happens it will not come out of 4 lo cause there is nothing to pull it out. And if it doesn't come out of 4 lo it won't let the shifter go into any other gear even though the shifter does move. The main reason the fork broke is because the pump failed and eat the end of the fork. Plan on a new pump, a couple of shifter forks, and a few other misc parts and seals. Not an expensive fix, $300 or less if you do the labor. $5-600 if a shop does it.

 

Yeah it sounds like you're stuck in 4L because of a broken shift fork.

These t-cases (Borg-Warner 13-56) are aluminum, but inside there is a steel retainer tab that holds the oil pump in place. After a few thousand miles that tab wears the case material away to the point where it can break loose and let the oil pump spin around on the main shaft which also tears off the oil pickup tube. At that point not only is the case running without lube but the pump retainer is spinning around. If I remember right from when I rebuilt mine, it will rotate around and bash into the range fork (high/low selector fork) which breaks it and then it's rebuild time.

Here's a great writeup that shows how to rebuild one:
Rebuild your own transfer case. BW1356 - FSB Forums


My electric-shift case grenaded due to the oil pump retainer failing, so I got a broken manual-shift model from the yard, rebuilt it, and bolted it in. It's actually probably cheaper to just get a working case and bolt that in, but I wanted to rebuild mine first so that I KNOW it's good to go, and so I could learn about them. They're really simple actually.

 

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate it.

I was starting to look around at rebuilts and at first glance it looks like they run around $350'ish. I'm betting I could find one at salvage yard for less, but yeah, I'd be risking similar issue I suppose.

I am someone mechanically inclined, so I am contemplating doing this myself. on a 10 point scale, what is the difficulty level? My Chiltons doesn't go into too much detail.

thanks for the link btw. It does detail the removal a little better than the Chiltons I guess. It sounds like it is pretty straight forward for the removal??? I think I'll pass on the rebuild part, thats a little beyond what I want to get into.

Thanks

 

A ten point scale would be different for everybody because someone that has never rebuilt anything at all before might rate a particular task an 8, and someone else who is willing to work on almost anything would rate it a 1.5!

My opinion:

Remove/reinstall transfer case: 2/10
Really easy except for the cat being slightly in the way if you have stock exhaust. Drain the case, disconnect wires, unbolt shifter, disconnect driveshafts, pull the 5 or so bolts that hold it on the transmission extension housing and you're good to go.

Rebuild transfer case: 4/10
It mostly only goes together one way but make sure you pay attention to the oil pump plungers, they can be put in wrong.

But if you just want to replace it, then you're in for an easy time assuming you don't have to fight rust. I'd say it's probably a half hour job to pull the t-case and I didn't bother with a jack. It ain't that heavy really, I just lowered it down on top of me and then slid out from under the truck... same thing going back in, get under the truck and lift it into place.

 

Thanks Dixie