Yesterday going down the freeway I felt a little lurch. Wasn't sure what it was so I slowed down to see if it would do it again. It didn't that I could tell but about 3 miles later the truck started making some horrible growling nasty noises. So I pull off and it won't go into any gear. So I called a friend (with a Ford ugh) to come tow me off the freeway. When I went to put the transfer case into nuetral to tow it the shifter slipped on the shaft. I got underneath and tightened it up and got it into nuetral and then back to 2hi. So I drive it really slowly off the freeway about a mile to get away from all the trucks. Now it shifts fine up to 5th gear but it makes a popping banging rattling noise as you drive. And when I was driving it onto the trailer today I noticed it slips out of 1st gear. So my question is how do I diagnose this? It sounds to me like it could be the snapring in the transfercase. But could that make 1st slip out? Any other suggestions? Thanks a bunch, Blair

 

Is the transfercase bolted tight to the transmission? I had a Ford once that had the same problem as you are describing, the transfercase was loose and the spacer between the two help the rear bearing for the transmission. This caused the end play in the transmission to be to much and the truck would jump out of gear and growl when driven. I tightened it up and all was fine. Make sure you use lock tight if it did loosen up.

 

I will check that. Thanks! Blair