My transfer case jumps out of gear when I tow anything, and lately it has been doing it unloaded while going up a hill. It only pops out when I am in fourth gear, too. I have been told that the plastic pads on the range fork are worn out. I pulled the PTO cover off the case and looked for damage. I cannot see anything damaged, and the pads I can see look fine. I am currently pulling the PTO covers off the tranny to see if there is anything obvious in there, like maybe a bunch of metal shavings. Any ideas about what to do next?

 

i had the same problem,i just ended up putting a new t case in it and calling it done. mine first did it one day when i shifted down, the guy at dodge told me it broke some teeth of a gear in there and that it why it was popping out.

 

I had the same issue a few months back. What had happened is the bearing on the input shaft had exploded so the planetary gear was bounching around. it took out the range fork, teeth off the planetary gear and stretched the chain out. I ended up having to replace all of those parts plus a bearing kit. The planetary gear was the hard part to find everyone is out of stock. Since the dodge Corp is in trouble they dont want to release the parts very cheap they wanted $900 for the gear. we found a good used one at a tranny shop in SoCal for 150.

 

I hope that is not my problem, bigtoyhauler. I talked to a couple of tranny shops today, and they both said the same thing. Range fork is worn out/bent. On one hand I want to just pull it apart and replace the range fork, but on the other I don't want to miss something else worn out and pull the case again. Is replacing the range fork a hard job? Do I need special tools?

 

Have you drained the t-case oil and looked for any metal or metallic color.If you pull it out grab the shaft that goes into the tranny and see how much play is in it. You need some special tools thier are some snap rings you have to remove before it will come completely apart. My best friend rebuilds tannys and transfer cases so i had all the tools and knowladge at my desposal. But it wasnt that hard to take apart and put together.

 

I did drain the fluid, and it did have a silvery metallic tinge. I pulled the pto cover too, and did not see any damage or metal shavings/chunks.

 

One important thing to check is the retaining clip inside the rear extension housing on the output shaft. It has a tendency to break and the transfer case will try and go into 4 wheel drive. If your lucky, it will bind up and pop into neutral, if your unlucky, it will bind and lock up and you will have a catastrophic failure of the transfer case....transfer case will explode.

Trust me, been there done that as well as a few others on this board.

For the couple of minutes to pull the rear extension housing off and to find 2 pieces of C clip will be worth it.

Jeff

 

Good tip. Where is the best place to buy one?