Help, Exploder no go.

Hi all. I've got a problem and am in need of some help. About 1 year ago while driving down the highway just after shifting my M5OD-R1 equipped '93 Explorer, into 5th gear, I hear a horrible spline meshing sound. There seems to be some spline issue, but I was able to drive another 5 miles to home by shifting the transfer case into 4 LO and idling it the remainder of the way. Thankfully it was a little past midnight and nobody was on the road. I didn't have time to rebuild the tranny at the time, so I switched to my motorcycle, well that too died and now I'm back to fixing the tranny. I tore it down and didn't really find any damage other than the input shaft gear was rather sharp from wear, so I replaced the input shaft, and all associated bearings with good used parts, and new bearings. I checked the pilot bearing with my fingers and that was as far as I went on that end.

I reinstalled the trans today and the exact same sound was still there. Truck doesn't move unless I put it in 4 LO. So I'm thinking that I probably should have checked the clutch disc hub for damage as that is all I can think of that would present these exact problems. It does it in all gears, as soon as the clutch engages, it sounds like splines are stripping.

What is the consensus? I'm kicking myself for not pulling the clutch and verifying that before putting the tranny back. At this point, I don't think the tranny is the fault, it's either clutch or T/C.

Transfer case rear case half wear and ruin the range fork and hub. Very common issue.

After replacing the xfer case with a known good one, the exact same problem exists. I'm now in the process of removing the tranny, and replace the clutch with a new one. The sounds are exactly like it would sound if the splines on the clutch hub were worn. I've never seen this problem, but do remember a clutch center coming apart. Didn't sound the same, but circumstances were similar.

Dennis

Is this an electric motor type transfer case? If so you have any lights not working or flashing on the buttons? The clutch spline would slip all the time. Transfer would have no effect.

After removing the tranny again, I found the source of the problem. I thought for sure the splines in the clutch hub had worn out and was skipping the splines. Upon removal, the plate that is attached to the hub had broken and was striking the springs located around the periphery of the clutch, creating the unique sounds.

Dennis

Glad you found the noise and problem. Thanks for keeping us posted. Cant recall ever seeing a disc broken in that way. Learn something new everyday. Good luck!