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Transfer Case Cracks

6K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Jerry Bransford 
#1 ·
So I pulled my transfer case a couple of days ago and got around to cleaning it up for a good inspection before doing the SYE.

I found cracks. Lots of them. Most are quite shallow, and possibly could be "normal" (from all I have read). However, I have at least one long one that looks pretty scary to me. It almost looks like the internals came apart and deformed the case from inside. The small ones are all over and spidery-looking.

To me, it looked like when I scrubbed the case clean that there was something gray covering up all these cracks; it looked intentional, like a repair, not just grease or filth. Perhaps JB Weld?

I will open it up in a few minutes when I head outside to work on the TJ. At that time I will try to pull the planetary box and look at the inside of that part of the case half. If I see gobs of stuff covering up cracks it is going into the trash bin after I harvest all the parts!

I have located a possible replacement from an SE (21 splines, yes) and would be fine with pulling my T case's guts and putting them into the SE case so that it is 23 spline and installing all the new stuff (SYE, Tera2Lo) at that point.

I would much rather NOT have to buy a replacement 231, of course, but will happily buy this one I found if I have to. I do not want to have to worry about this all the time when driving this TJ.

Anyway, here are some photos. As I said, most are shallow, hairline spidery cracks, but one looks pretty bad to me. As far as I can tell there is zero fluid leakage.

Thanks!
 

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#2 ·
Swapping put gears is easy just remember tooth profile changed around 94 or 95 so you cannot mix early and late

That applies to front case half with the ring gear and the input with sun gear and the cage with planets

Although old and new tooth profile teeth can fit together they are not able to last with a mix of new and old tooth profile

Around here a you pull it 231 is about $100 including core charge

You have an poetry mitt for a couple upgrades

If you get a chain and sprockets from a dodge 231dhd (HD stands for heavy duty) found in Durango it has a wider stronger chain
That same case has a planet cage with 4 planet gears which is a small upgrade from the three in your 231j.
Better still a carrier and planet from a 241 like a 241c from a Chevy has six planets

Just remember year of tooth profile change and don't mix old and new tooth profiles in the planetary system
 
#5 ·
I can't make a judgement from those pictures, but I have seen many transmissions and transfer cases on many different types of cars that have imperfections like that, which have been completely normal and do not go all the way through or leak/cause problems.

If it were my truck, and it was not leaking, and had no other symptoms, I would not even give it a second thought.
 
#6 ·
It is all back together, folks. Thanks! Took longer than normal due to my suspicious inspections of the case and all other aluminum parts. I am pretty sure it is fine.

Yesterday we went ahead and opened it up. I inspected *everything* several times just to be sure.

I installed the Tera2Lo kit with no real issues. However, before I opened it and now that it is together (but DRY) it is difficult to shift by hand using the little lever on the sector shaft. I hope that is normal.

It seems to me that it is BACKWARDS, though.

When looking at the side of the case where the lever/arm lives (meaning looking at it from the driver side in) When I removed it I think the lever was all the way down/back for 2Hi and now that is 2Lo (the added position after 4Lo) and 2Hi is with the lever pointed forwards (more or less).

Is that correct? I will check it again today. The selector is in correctly and the two pins are in the slot or riding on the edge. The T case turns freely (with a little pre-load). I tested it by turning the input shaft end that mates to the transmission. All the way forward got me 2Hi, next click was 4Hi, then 4N, then 4Lo and the new 2Lo. The two low ratios work correctly, my spinning the input about 2 3/4 turns to net one full rotation of the yokes except in 2Lo where it only turned the rear. In 2Hi and 4Hi the outputs matched the inputs.

I am only worried that it is set up backwards. Dennis' video and his written instructions seem to contradict one another over the direction the synchro sleeve. I did it the way the video says, with the long end facing the front of the jeep.

Also, his video specifically states all the case bolts AND the tail shaft housing bolts are torqued to 25 ft/lbs whereas the printed instructions state 25, but only 20 for the tail shaft housing bolts. I did 25 on all like the video shows.

I thought I had some peculiar version of the case when I removed the lock and snap rings so I could pull the guts out and the front shaft would not come lose. I thought that maybe there is a snap or lock ring retaining that shaft, too. So I hammered and picked out the oil seal. No retainers. And the shaft then easily fell out. So now I have a new oil seal as well as the little spline-shaped rubber washer/gasket (seal washer) on the way. I will have them both by Friday at the latest, so I will fill it up at that time.

I am leaving it off so I can pull the transmission and replace the clutch next. If I see the same sort of spider web cracking in it I won't panic this time. Promise!

Thanks for all the hand-holding, guys.
 
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