Symphony of Destruction

[StangsandMavs]

ja ja jadududunt...

I think the end is near.

We've had our 95 Explorer for the past 8 years and at 215k miles, it doesn't appear that it's going to make it to number 9...

We had the freak snowstorm here in the Northeast in October and as I drove my daughter to work with the 4WD engaged, I started noticing a clunk on acceleration.

Crap.

I tried to isolate the problem... but the U-joints are tight... CV Joints look great... the speedometer is steady... the ball joints are fine... the fluids were fine... the wheels,with the front end off the ground move freely and without any binding in 4WD.

The only play that I can find is some verticle play where the front axle mount slides into the transfer case housing. Spinning the drive shaft clockwise and counter clockwise, there also seems to be a good bit of rotation before the slack in the front drive shaft starts to engage the transfer case drive chain.

The noise is only heard when in 4WD and accelerating... so I'm thinking that it is either the transfer case or the front differential, but I've yet to see or hear anything that would have me believe that it is the front differential, as the mount appears to be solid.

The only other possibility that I could think it could be is a front ABS sensor... which doesn't appear to be worth replacing.

I'm open to other suggestions... but as I was going over the car, I found that it is starting to develop some serious corrosion in the rear frame rails, shackles, and even saw a small leak from a hole that has rusted through toward the top of the pumpkin cover.

It's going to be sad day to let this one go... I've spent a lot of days under the hood to keep it going this long... I think I've got about an inch worth of receipts in the filing cabinet of lifetime part warranties... ugh.

 

[drdoom]

My sympathy. Maybe it would be good for parts vehicle?

 

[PopRichie77]

Sounds like transfer case.

 

[StangsandMavs]

My sympathy. Maybe it would be good for parts vehicle?

I'm sure it would be... we've used the car as a "bad weather" vehicle since 2007, putting on about 30k miles since then. So a lot of the replacement parts are still relatively new.

 

[StangsandMavs]

Sounds like transfer case.

In true Philly fashion....

"BOOOOOOO!!!!"

I'm holding out hope that it is something simple. I've pulled the transfer case a couple of times over the years, but unless I were to score a really cheap replacement (with some level of confidence that it is fully functional), it's just not something that I'm really looking forward to.

BTW... love the Quakertown area.... I make the trip to Lehigh every summer for Training camp. This has been one of those years when the season peaked during camp, though...

 

[StangsandMavs]

Just an update...

It was the transfer case. I saw one pop up on craigslist for $125 and figured that it would be worth it to get it through this winter. I swapped it out today...

Now that I think back to the last time that I pulled it to work on the transmission, the fluid was more brown than it should've been. I didn't pay too much attention to it since we don't put a whole lot of miles on it.

When I drained the fluid today, it was downright muddy looking... brown and cloudy.

So, the good news is that I swapped them out for about $125, a can of brake cleaner (I hate working with gunked up cars, and brake cleaner toasts through that crud like it was dirt) and a couple quarts of ATF.

The other good news is that I've become pretty swift at installing and yanking this transfer case...

The bad news is that I've become good at this... and this Explorer is still on its last legs.

 

[wood1]

215K on a '95 on it's last legs? It's just in it's prime man. That transfer case must have been built on a Friday afternoon to only last that long!