Transfer case ready to blow?

[boreddead88]

I just bought a 99 5.0 mountaineer full time awd (obviously), 2" key/shakel lift, and 3" body lift, it has 33s on it. got a good 2,000 miles out of it, im now getting some serious drive line vibration. I checked all the u-joints, they are all fine. My front tires are worn quite a bit worse than the rear (came that way). Im thinking my vibration is coming from the transfer case.

My real inquery is, dose any one know what sort of differential is in the case? I've had alot of jeeps and other full-time awd vehicles that had an open diff in the transfer case. basically what I'm getting at is. If I pull the front shaft is the rear shaft still going to get power or will the transfer case just diff out and my ride be immobile? the obvious fix is to get new front tires, and get everything aligned, and set-up right, but i'm looking for a quick fix so i can still be mobile. I spent less than a grand on the whole rig, and Im not really keen on blowing another $550 for 2 front tires right this second.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[JCat]

The AWD transfer case divides the power 65/35 percent rear/front. Removing one driveshaft will make you immobile.
.
Finding the source of vibration can be a time consuming and expensive journey. Mine went like this:
Replace:
Front Axle bearings
Front axles (including cv jounts)
Shocks (there are 5 of them)
Front driveshaft (joint at transfer case is unique)
upper ball joints (and control arms)
lower ball joints
tie rod ends
sway bar links
and finally. . . .the tires
.
Only then did my vibration disappear.
.
Good luck.
.

 

[Turdle]

Yeah, get new tires then report back. The diameter, front and rear must match exactly,

 

[gavin]

Removing one driveshaft will make you immobile.

uhhh... no..

you can remove the front driveshaft and it will still drive.

as to the OP, you could say the t-case is a limited-slip. As the rear tires slip (rotate faster than the front), the halves of the VC rotate at different speeds causing the viscous fluid to heat up (due to the plates) and create more friction, bringing the power split closer to 50/50 (theoretically).

I agree with Turdle.
although, you could also try swapping just a front and rear.
It's also possible it's the cv-joint at the t-case end of the front driveshaft.

 

[boreddead88]

I got ahold of a good 4406 last night mad cheap. i need the propper drive shafts, however for the moment I'm going to pull the front shaft, and see what happens. It is a v/c rather than an open diff, generally with a v/c they are deigned to put constant power to the rear wheels and use the front as a variable drive. Which dose make sense. If it dose slip w/o the front shaft, I'll probibly just wind up making a trip to the local u-pull it facility for the propper shafts, and just throw that 4406 in it. I'd really like to be able to take it in and out of 4x4, and have low range...