I take an off road route home to skip rush hour traffic, and the route is not too bad, my friend's '05 Camry can do it. The only issue about that route is that it is hella bumpy. Also, there is a steeper part (which I took because I had 4x4), and a less steep but longer way. The steep part is not all that bumpy also. Then there is a steeper route that I decided to explore today. I never had to use low range until now, but the truck crawled up, no issues. I got to the top and then there was another hill, but no where near as steep, but I didn't stop to disengage low range. I was crawling up, not overdoing it at all, then I heard a loud click. Something snapped, I stopped in the middle of a hill then shut off the truck and applied the parking brake. The hill was steep enough to make me roll still, so I put the truck into 1st gear, still in low range, and it still rolled which made me think my tranny just stranded me, so thankfully I had some blocks of wood still in the back of my truck that I use to chock wheels when I need to, so I chocked off the rear wheels. After about 15 minutes of panicking, I noticed I was still in low range, then decided to disengage 4x4. Low and behold, my tranny is fine, but the transfer case is not. I made it home in 2wd safe and sound, no issues. My question being, what exactly happened to my transfer case? Loud click, still rolls when in gear, and also a grinding when in neutral and off the clutch. Should I go find another one in a junk yard, or is it possible to rebuild it myself? I have the 460 with one of the ZF5s if it makes any difference

 

until you take it apart, it could be anything.

 

After getting stuck and having no choice but to use 4x4, turns out only low range is not working. I know very little about transfer cases other than they're mostly chain driven. Could it be possible to repair whatever broke in there that keeps me from using low range?

 

Possibly, but until you disassemble it and look inside it's hard to be sure

 

+1, you won't know what's fragged until you split the case. The fact that it still works in high and 4x tells me it might be a gear or a selector ring, but I don't know the 1356 well enough to say beyond that. I'd expect it to jump right out at you once you split the case, though. Hopefully whatever popped is available and hasn't taken anything else with it.

Edit: You might have a look at the external linkage as well before opening it up, make sure there isn't some wallered bushing preventing the shifter from moving the shift fork far enough to engage low range.

 

The good thing is that if you do in fact need to get a new one, the 1356 t-case is pretty common. I'm pretty sure they used that case in the f-150's with the 5.0 all the way to the f-350s 7.3 powerstroke. I have my stock 302 t-case mounted up to a 7.3 zf5 and have had to issues running it behind the powerstroke.

I never took one apart, so I don't know what may be wrong, but they are very easy to take down and replace, and usually not too expensive. It may be worth tearing apart to look inside, but I'd imagine you can find the case at a junk yard easily.