Transfer Case Help

[blkjk78]

Hi-
New to the site - joined up because it's the only site I could find where people actually seemed to help.

I'm having a problem with my stock 99 XLS. A noise started in the front end about three months ago that sounded / felt like a rapid thump that seemed to originate from the driveshaft or sometimes the center of the floorboards, towards the front. It has now severly progressed to the point that I'm a little afraid to drive it. Noises it's making now include a "tinny" kind of sound that gets especially louder when going uphill. And it also has a noise that I can only explain as the sound a stick-shift car makes in reverse. It's getting louder and louder but I don't know much about working on cars - especially front-end work and hope that someone can help me out.

I just dropped $800 on brake work and while they were checking out the car, I had them take it for a ride to see if they could figure out what was wrong. They said either the driveshaft was making the noise or I had a bad transfer case. Other people who I've talked to about the problem have brought up the tranfer case 99% of the time, so I'm pretty sure that's the problem. My problem is that I don't know if the whole transfer case needs to be replaced, or just the motor. I should mention that the truck has a hard time shifting into 4by low - and once in, it'll take several hundred tries to get it to shift back down - so I think that's part of the problem - but I'll leave it to you experts to see if that's related.

ANYWAY - If someone case please let me know what I need to replace and tell me what I need to get, I'd really appreciate it. I don't want to bring it to the dealer as I don't think the truck is actually worth the whopper of a bill I'm sure to get, so I want to buy the parts and have a friend do the work. IS it a difficult job? How long would it take?? ANY help would be appreciated!!

Thanks!
-Pat

blkjk78@aim.com
pddvorak@comcast.net

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[gavin]

I can bet the driveshaft. The CV-joint at the t-case end of the shaft doesn't last a terribly long time. Crawl under the truck, grab the shaft just before the CV-joint, and jiggle it around.. it will probably have a lot of play.

 

[blkjk78]

cool - thanks for the help - i'll give it a try and see what it does.

 

[IZwack]

First off, I think you overpayed for that brake job - $800 <- at that price, I'd rather stick my feet under the vehicle Flintstone style.

has a noise that I can only explain as the sound a stick-shift car makes in reverse.

Thats an interesting sound - the driveshaft doesnt really make that sound - but its a quick check so its definitely worth a try.

But as you stated, since the Transfer Case is already having problems, then yes perhaps that is the first major place to look at. I guess since this is a fairly old vehicle, you could get a transfer case form a junk yard, pop it in and see if there's any change.

The following thread glazes over the procedure on removing the transfer case (scroll down to almost half of the page after it loads): http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142207&highlight=hybridized

In the back of my mind, there's a little voice whispering that this could be a transmission problem. So maybe Glacier991 can chime in as he is the transmission guru.

PS: I'm moving this under the Transmission & Transfer Case section of the forum.