After listening to a loud popping, grinding noise coming from my transfer case in 4x4, I took it apart to find a stretched and wore out chain. Chain was rubbing on the inside of the case. The chain wore more on one side than the other. I hardly ever use 4X4 other than towing a snowmobile trailer in snowstorms. Hard to find part. Dealer was on back-order. Found one at a local trans shop. $137. Not a very hard fix with case on truck. Pretty simple other than taking off large retaining ring. Used a hoist though. Nice and quiet now.

 

80k and you already had a stretched tcase chain? ive read on here about guys that have way more miles then you with numerous 4wheel drive launches at the track and have always heard that the tcase's are not an issue... kinda shocked to hear this...


glad that it was an easy and semi cheap fix..

 

^This^ could be the source of the stretch unless the roads were pretty much slick with snow. You can get alot of binding driving on pavement not slick enough for the tires to slip when you go around corners.

 

I only use the 4 wheel drive on slippery roads. Not sure if it was really stretched much but there was a lot of slop in the pins and bushings.

Without lockout hubs, your chain is always moving even though four wheel drive is not engaged.