well, i was driving home last night when all of a sudden i pick up a horrible vibration, i pull off, and nothing seems out of line, no awkward smells, no abnormal heat, nothing that seemed a miss. I took off again, and it started back up, well, i rolled down the window and all i hear is a metal clanging, like something was loose and smacking around. Well i nurse it home and to the local garage and call a friend to pick me up. I went back this morning and got them to take a look at it, and they told me that basically what had happened was the transfer case had some parts break or break loose inside and that it would need to be replaced, he quoted me two prices, one was 1100 for a used one installed, and 1600 for just the part from ford. Now my question is, how hard is it to replace a transfer case. I have access to a jack and jack stands, and feel that it shouldn't be too hard to drop one out and bolt up another. I have searched the junkyards around here and found a few with low miles for around 450-750. How much trouble would it be to replace it and should i do it myself?

 

for those that have done a transfer case replacement, about how long did it take?

 

A piece of cake, relatively. Do some more research. A new T-case should be less than $600 and a rebuilt for about $300 on exchange. You can buy 2 used explorers for $1600 - lots of spare parts there. Take a look underneath. You can easily see where the transmission extensions stops and the T-case starts.

I just replaced my transmission and put the t-case up after the tranny was in. My jack set up sucked so I ended up bench pressing it into place and got a couple bolts started. I'm a 40 year old 150 lb weakling and I got it in. So you can be the judge.

 

that sounds promising, i got to looking through the haynes manual, and it doesn't seem that bad, looks to me like the hardest part is going to be scrounging up the parts, finding the right transfer case, and pulling it away from the tranny along with realigning the splines, i think i can handle a transfer case, 6'2 270lbs, i hope i'm strong enough, lol, gotta do my share of calling to find one in the morning, and hope they can get it for me in the afternoon so i can do it tomorrow night and have my ride back so i can have a ride on wednesday. lucked out and one of my buddies is gonna find me some jacks and stands, so that helps out a lot, along with giving me a hand, so yeah.

 

Stock suspension and your size - you'll need a jack and stands for sure. mine is lifted and I am little so I didn't have to jack it up at all. Realigning the splines is nothing. keep the tranny in nuetral and rotate the case...it'll pop right in. Then rotate it to align the bolts.

On the very bottom bolt, it won't come out all the way since the tranny mount is in the way...at least it was on my 5sp. Auto might be different. But that's the toughest one to get out since there is not enough room to get a socket on it. Make sure you use a closed end box wrench. I can't remember what size..13mm or 15mm?

 

I leave the trans in park or first, if stick. Put the T-case up there, and turn the output shaft to line up the spline, and push it in. I used a floor jack with a plate I made up for removing the trans.

 

As the fellas stated it's a relatively easy job. First time = 4-8 hours. Second time probably 1.5.

I uncoupled the drive shafts at the u-joint (left the splines in the case). I then dropped the t-case onto the cross member and hauled it down without a jack. When recoupling the drive-shafts they need to be aligned so the shafts are in phase. That is to say they look like a "cartoon" dog bone. When re-installing the t-case I hauled it back up on the cross member and used a pry bar to lift it high enough to get a couple of bolts in. Easier with two people though.

It should be a piece of cake.

Gil

P.S. I bought an entire parts truck for $600.00 and got tons of spare parts for upgrades and future use including trim parts etc.

 

Hey Gill - why don't you sell him your spare t-case?

What years are we talking about...wonder if they are the same?

 

ok, bought the t-case today for $500, got all the fluids and everything else for about $35 and borrowed good jack and some jack stands from my friends job. gonna tackle it tonight, we're gonna have two jobs going on tonight, his starter just went out, so yeah, very interesting since i lost my help. but it really doesn't seem hard in my mind and what i've read. the only thing i forgot was a marker of some sort, but i'm sure i can find something to make sure everything is lined back up right. hoping it doesn't take me 4-8 hours since i'm startin at about 930 on this, lol. i picture it running 2-3 hrs, and a lot of that will just be making sure its right and doubling back over to recheck it. thanks for your input and helping make my outlook positive. next project will be ball joints, i'll ask another time about those if i have any questions, lol.

 

ok, so when i climbed under tonight i bumped the front drive shaft and heard the metal noise again, and got curious, i started jerking on it a bit and it clanged around, moved a little, etc. I pulled it off and immediately got smacked in the mouth with 2 *****, then a ring with a ball in it landed on my chest, one other flew off, and the other two remained in the housing. was this supposed to happen, are they supposed to be free to move in there like that or be stuck in that ring? could this be what is causing my noise and vibration? or do you believe that it is still the transfer case, bc if it is this what would be wrong, by the way, i moved the truck back into my parking spot tonight and didn't notice a sound, or anything like i had when i moved it to where i worked on it, is it safe to drive without the front driveshaft, i assume it is, but want to make sure.

 

I take it this is your 1998 V6 Explorer right? (from your profile) If so, It's OK to remove the front drive shaft. The V6 model was not all wheel (control track) from my recollection. So you should have 2WD, 4x4 high and 4x4 low, right?

The front drive shaft, like the rear, has a cardian slip joint - splined with ball bearings...as you found out. the bearings should be kept in place with a ring. They do not fall out. It sounds like your problem might have ben misdiagnosed.

But I do wonder why it made any noise at all unless you were driving around in 4x4 high. If it was truely in 2WD, the front shaft would never turn.

 

the settings on the dash are awd, 4x4 high, and 4x4 low. it stays in awd, every so often i'll flip through them just to preserve it and make sure the contacts are all ok. but yeah, where can i find this slip joint, does any local auto parts store carry them? or would i have to see if a junkyard has that as well. already gonna have to bite the bullet on returning the transfer case, 25% restocking fee but at least it'll be a little better than a $500 case. for now, since it's running fine, i'm gonna leave it in the 2wd. the part number was xl24-aa, so it's supposed to be a part time transfer case, and not an awd, so i don't know whats up with it, i know it has control-trac, but thats it. thanks for your help, you have been a blessing in helping me with this, still learning about the 4wd components, now time to go chew the garage out that misdiagnosed it, and ask them why they determined that when i asked them to take a look at the joints and bearings first, since thats what i initially thought it was.

 

No these are 2 different t-cases. AWD must be replaced with another AWD. So bring this T-case back and tell them they gave you the wrong one and you're not paying the restock fee - thier mistake.

So I guess I was wrong and V6's did come with control track. I know that V-8's only came with control track...must have been my confusion.

So there might be a problem removing the front drive shaft only...and that is that the front running gear is still being turned while you drive. I don't know if that will do any damage to the front diff or not. You may want to post this down in the Transmission/Transfer case forum.

Where to get a new drive shaft? Junk yard I guess. On my 93, I think the front drive shaft came from Dana - it's a Dana 35. But it probably makes more sense to try and rebuild it with a new bearing...as long as the splines are still OK - you'll have to remove the rubber cover and look.

Try Ford to see if you can get the bearings seperate...though they probably only sell it as a complete unit. Try also the phone book under Auto/Driveshaft...many shops rebuild them and may have them on the shelf or can rebuild yours in a couple hours.

 

the transfer case i bought was the same part number as the one that was on there. so i know it's the right transfer case. there isn't a rubber boot around it, it's all metal, the other parts look fine, just the bearing has come apart. i'll take it to ford and see what they can tell me. there were actually 4 types of transfer cases for the 98's, 3 part times and 1 awd. i'm gonna take the transfer case back to the junkyard and then going to complain to procare automotive and see what they can offer in the way of fixing this since i will probably have to bite the bullet on the restock fee. thanks, i'll post in the tranny/t case forum about running without the front driveshaft. thanks jharger

 

I had a 97 Explorer, and it had control track. I had 4 Auto, 4 Hi, & 4 Low. Front drive shaft spins all the time when car is moving. I can tell you this though from experiance, if you hear a clicking noise, and /or see your RPM go up, your transfer case shift motor failed, and it can fail to 4 wheel low. I did over $2k of damage to my transfer case, thank god for extended warrenty. evidently the shift motor can fail and cause the cams and some levers to drop into 4 hi position when driving, but since shift motor is non operational, it can also fall into 4 low, as what happened to me, You notice it when the clicking stops and all of a sudden you are doing 4000 rpm.