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epic my truck has the same t-case part number and same drive shafts design. I haven't had any issues with my truck in sand or loose dirt yet but I am going to keep my eye on it now.
I happened to catch the truck misbehaving on the dash cam. Thought others might be interested. For anyone with transfer case expertise, what exactly would you guess failed?
You posted a video a long time ago where your transfer case did not engage properly. I wonder if you had a problem in it from day one and something different about this trip finally caused it to finally fail.
Gary
Yes, mine is a short bed and no, I don't think anyone has to pay any particular attention to their transfer cases. Before mine let go the only other transfer case issue was what wb6anp reported and that was due to bad bearings. Not so in my case. I just haven't heard of any other t-case issues.
My bet is what Senix suggested. It felt just like the chain stretched and slipped over the top of the gear teeth. It slipped once, made a full rotation, slipped again, rotated again and then started raking over the top of the newly reduced teeth. When I engage 4Lo now and put the truck in gear I no longer feel the clunk but still hear the chain.
An interesting point is that the first time the chain slipped, the clunk was so violent the dash cam automatically assumed an accident and saved the 3 minute video section. You can hear the dash cam beep each of the three times the chain clunked over the reduction gear teeth. That was kind of cool.
You posted a video a long time ago where your transfer case did not engage properly. I wonder if you had a problem in it from day one and something different about this trip finally caused it to finally fail.
Gary
That was unrelated to this event. That was just a weird phenomenon that I noticed on my 2011 and then happened to catch on video on the 2017 also. On both trucks the front hubs required a little extra time to engage the first time. I heard lots of possible reasons including taking extra time to create a vacuum in the system to possible sharp machining surfaces that just needed a little extra umphf to engage. Whatever that was the hubs have been flawless since that time.
Now I'm a little worried about mine in my CCSB. I have the same T-case as Epic. This is the first SD I've ever had that hummed in 4x4. It has done it since day 1 and I figured it was the T-case.
I'm dropping it at a dealer this week because I'm heading out of town for a few days. This will give the dealer enough time to open up the t-case and communicate with Ford. It's kind of unlikely that it will be fixed by the time I return, new transfer case and all. The dealer said he has several F150s and a couple of SD's I could take while he's working on it. I'm glad the bulk of towing season is over for me. I have no plans to tow heavy right now so this is good timing.
Right now I don't see this as a concern for anyone else. I just haven't heard of other failures so it's likely a one-off. I've asked the dealer to take photos or video when he's in there so I can see what happened. He's really accommodating so I'm hopeful for a nice follow-up when I get back.