08 Mercury Mariner

I knew about a small leak in my transfer case and figured it would be fine to drive it a short distance down the road. I didn't realize the leak was as bad as it was and the fluid was so low, and I'm guessing it ran dry because after a mile or so it began to roar just a little bit. It would just making roaring noises when I pressed on the gas so I pulled over and shut it off. I was close to home so I wanted to see if I could just make it back and I put it in drive and let it roll to see what it would do and it made a thumping noise every rotation of the driveshaft so like thump.... thump.... thump... and I just shut it off and got towed to avoid more damage. I'm guessing the pattern like thumping has to do with a gear in the transfer case. Unfortunate the ******* who sold me the car didn't tell me there was a leak so here I am now. I always work on my own cars, my plan is to refill it back up with new fluid (despite the slow leak) and quickly test drive it to see if the noises will go away or not. If they go away, I will fix the leak on the transfer case. But if it continues to roar I guess I'll be ordering a new transfer case. Any thoughts or advice? I'm not super educated in the field of transfer cases, if anyone has any input or would tweak my plan in any ways please let me know. Thanks guys.

 

I pulled the transfer case ( PTU ) on my daughters 2005 Escape recently to replace a seal and it wasn't fun.From what I recall I had to pull off a brace,remove the right side axle,disconnect the driveshaft,remove the alternator and finally remove the front half of the exhaust including the exhaust manifold.Then there is a support bracket that needs to be removed before you can see the PTU bolts.There is one bolt with a standard metric head facing left and there are 3 or 4 facing right with an inverse torx head like a seatbelt bolt.On top of the exhaust manifold is an egr tube.The *******s at Ford used a nut just over an inch in so a 1" wrench won't fit but I was able to get it off with a Crescent wrench.The tube is fragile, mine snapped in half as I was taking it off.When I was replacing the PTU I took a couple of bolts and cut the heads off and threaded them into the transmission to act as guide bolts.There are a few youtube videos which I found helpful, good-luck.

 

The transfer case is exposed to So much heat and so little lubricant to begin with that the lubewill turn pitch black under 30,000k.It becomes dead obvious when you just simply remove the drive shaft and rotate the output shaft back and forth, what kind of wear there is. There should be virtually no play, no little clunk, just a barely discernable click between what is the ring gear an the pinion shaft (output shaft) as everything starts to turn in there. If there is , you get nothing but humming and then roaring as it gets looser in there. Gearing/bearings grinds into itself, the case within and then produces this awful smelling black goop replete with metal shavings...looks like goopy steel wool. I will add that its a good idea to have a new set of exhaust manifold studs for the head because they have real problem with the nuts being seized on and they can/will break off. A can of WD with a long spray extension is also handy. You may need 45 degree drill/attachment and a eazy out with some way to center a really sharp drill on the stud...lets hope.Been there, satisfying but not fun. Iderfergusson has explained the rest rather well. A reverse torx for the transfer case bolts as mentioned is a definite requirement. Rounding those off with a 13 mil 12 spline is easy thing to do and then ur in for a fight...they are long, deep set and torqued in Really tight. A 13 mill will brutalize the bolt heads here and you will end up trying to cut the heads in an almost impossible amount of space. The brackets usually have normal torx bolts to the block etc. as well.Not a job for the timid or cheezy tools.