I can tell the story up to the point where nothing worked, but I have no clue what actually happened.
I went down to the mountains this past Sunday to check on our hunting camp. The snow at the end of the drive was a couple of feet or so deep from the plows, had gone through several freeze/thaw cycles so was pretty hard. Took me two tries to bust through, went up and over on the skid plates like a sled, then up the drive about 100 feet until I started to bog down so I parked it. 4WD was working fine. On the way out, I did the sled routine again, then headed down the road to a friends place to check on it as well. Same routine to get in the drive, 4WD worked fine. On the way home the roads were really salted and there was a lot of anti-skid(sandy gravel) put down, so after an hour of that I could only see out of the windshield. I stopped at the car wash when I got back into town and ran it through the autowash which has a series of jets that wash the bottom. Fast forward three days to Wednesday night, temps dropped like a stone, snow started, so Yesterday morning I needed 4wd to negotiate the ice and snow. I yanked up the transfer case lever (which did not feel right), backed out of the driveway and ZINGGGGG......gear noise in the front end. Levr back down to 2wd, back up t 4wd, managed to make it about 200 feet and ZIINGGGG again. I pulled over, did the 4wd-2wd-4wd shift again, 200 feet ZINGGGG, gear noise again. I gave up and got to work in 2wd with lots of cursing. As a WAG, I put the Jeep in the garage last night with a heater on, kept it at about 45* all night. Backed out this morning and it slipped into 4wd nice as you please.
I know my CJ's were totally mechanical with the transfer case and front axle hubs, this is obviously different technology. What happened??
I went down to the mountains this past Sunday to check on our hunting camp. The snow at the end of the drive was a couple of feet or so deep from the plows, had gone through several freeze/thaw cycles so was pretty hard. Took me two tries to bust through, went up and over on the skid plates like a sled, then up the drive about 100 feet until I started to bog down so I parked it. 4WD was working fine. On the way out, I did the sled routine again, then headed down the road to a friends place to check on it as well. Same routine to get in the drive, 4WD worked fine. On the way home the roads were really salted and there was a lot of anti-skid(sandy gravel) put down, so after an hour of that I could only see out of the windshield. I stopped at the car wash when I got back into town and ran it through the autowash which has a series of jets that wash the bottom. Fast forward three days to Wednesday night, temps dropped like a stone, snow started, so Yesterday morning I needed 4wd to negotiate the ice and snow. I yanked up the transfer case lever (which did not feel right), backed out of the driveway and ZINGGGGG......gear noise in the front end. Levr back down to 2wd, back up t 4wd, managed to make it about 200 feet and ZIINGGGG again. I pulled over, did the 4wd-2wd-4wd shift again, 200 feet ZINGGGG, gear noise again. I gave up and got to work in 2wd with lots of cursing. As a WAG, I put the Jeep in the garage last night with a heater on, kept it at about 45* all night. Backed out this morning and it slipped into 4wd nice as you please.
I know my CJ's were totally mechanical with the transfer case and front axle hubs, this is obviously different technology. What happened??