Splitcase shennagians!

[Otterav]

Hey
Went to S-N-T '11, was on the drive down US 101, speedo quit and about 60 miles later the transfer started making rock crusher type noises. Stopped and had a local shop pump it full of 140 WT, Made it to SNT and finished the transfer off on the sand. Pics tell the story:

Some might have seen the Mutant parked near the sign post DOA, had to be dragged to that point. My buddy went home and got his Dodge and a flat bed to drag it home. Oh well at least I made a showing.
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[amaurer]

Color of the oil looks a bit off. Otherwise looks fine, run it.

 

[Otterav]

The color is off due to the ground up gear teeth, it was amazing how far it drove after the noise started. Lesson is if the speedo suddenly quits the splitcase is out of oil, take heed and keep in the memory banks.

 

[amaurer]

The color is off due to the ground up gear teeth, it was amazing how far it drove after the noise started. Lesson is if the speedo suddenly quits the splitcase is out of oil, take heed and keep in the memory banks.

Haha, I was just making a joke, I thought the oil looked fine.

So thats all it was, out of oil? Nothing got sucked through those gears?

 

[Otterav]

Yuppers,
ADD got the best of me, I changed the engine oil, topped the axles, gearbox and then something shiny or sparkly got my attention and I neglected to top the splitcase.I guess the splitcase from the 62 auto is the next project, gonna rebuild it and mate it to the H55 and stick it into the Mutant.
The good news is the transfer mounted parking brake output shaft, PTO gear and associated stuff were unmolested, whew, that stuff is NLA!

 

[gerg]

Man sorry to see that destruction! Nasty. I remember changing the running gear oils on my first cruiser after I had it for a few months and was surprised to see that the transfer case was not only completely empty, but when I stuck my pink finger in the drain hole and felt around, only dry dirt came out. No noise. I had it rebuilt anyhow.

 

[kim]

The color is off due to the ground up gear teeth, it was amazing how far it drove after the noise started. Lesson is if the speedo suddenly quits the splitcase is out of oil, take heed and keep in the memory banks.

These cases can run a long time without any oil whatsoever. Mine leaked like a sieve and I neglected it for years before the rebuild. No tooth damage to speak of but the colour of all the gears were like bronze.

 

[Henry James the 47th]

"These cases can run a long time without any oil whatsoever."
Well, perhaps so in certain situations, but not for long at highway driving speed, in my experience. My splitcase blew up last year when the PTO drive flange seal failed and allowed oil from inside the case to be pushed out - this all happened during the course of a 2 hour drive. I was driving at about 65 mph and getting close to my destination when I heard a funny whining noise begin - - started to pull over and kaboom! the whole thing blew up. It took all of 25 seconds from hearing the initial whining noise to hearing the really bad noise. My gears looked similar to those shown in the first post. Expensive lesson, but nice to have additional practice rebuilding the transfer case again. It was a surprise that the PTO drive seal went - basically it had hardened up from hardly ever being used.

 

[cruisedeisel]

i noticed my truck have less power one day going my regular hill to my house. the transfercase sounded a little dry so when i got home i put some more oil in it and off she went. its been fine ever since.

 

[Davaa]

Kim,

Same happened to me with running a dry box and tcase. My gear tooth faces look bronze/copper-ish like you mentioned. Did yours run ok afterwards? after rebuild I mean? I am contemplating a rebulid by just changing bearings and seals. What do you think? Would these gears hold up just fine or they got soft and weak.

davaa