Transfer Case Exploded

[JPNelson]

Hello,

I am posting this for a friend of mine. Yesterday morning while driving down the interstate at 70-75 mph, his truck made a loud clanking banging sound. He pulled over immediately and saw he had left a trail of fluid behind him. Motor sounded fine. He crawled underneath and found the front section of the transfer case bustedall to heck. He found pieces laying on road!



His truck is a bone stock '03 2500 4x4 4 door long bed with 110,000 miles. It has been used to get him back and forth to work, pulled a small horse trailer a few times. Really very little "real hard" use.



What would cause this to happen? What do you think it will cost to replace the t-case? Can a couple of guys make the repairs? Do we need any special tools? Should we have the driveshafts rebalanced?



Thank you for any and all replys. This guy is down on his luck and this is the last thing that he needsmto have happen.



Thanks Again!!

 

[steved]

By chance, did he have a vibration around 70mph?

 

[JPNelson]

He had mentioned that he was noticing some vibration, noise, etc. He thought that the noise and vibration was an axle u-joint and we were getting ready to tear into that. I did not ride in the truck prior to what happened yeasterday, so I am simply posting what he has told me.



Again, thanks for all the replys.

 

[gsbrockman]

I'll bet the front driveshaft u-joint / cardigan joint self*destructed, causing the rest of the havoc you've previously described.



I know a guy with a 2004 that had one come apart; took out fuel lines, wiring harnesses, front drive shaft, and obviously the transfer case. It ended up being a really costly repair.



Greg

 

[steved]

In a way, it sounds like the chain self-destructed, and "pried" the case apart as it got caught up... but that would indicate the truck had been driven in 4wd on dry roads and the chain stretched, which is not indicated in the original post.



I was thinking that if it had a lifetime of the 70mph vibes like some trucks have, that the aluminum just stress hardened and failed. But again, that doesn't sound like the problem here.



It is most likely one of those things that just happens... no real cause other than it just broke.

 

[SRadke]

If it's the front part it'd be the planetary, not the chain. That is a vague description. There were a rash of them in the early common rail years that were coming from the factory as much as 2 quarts low on oil. This could be one of those and the miles caught up with it.

-Scott

 

[JPNelson]

I called my buddy last nite and asked him if his wife or kids ever drove his truck in 4WD, his said no, not ever. He said that the front driveshaft is still connected, sort of!



Is it true that he could get one as cheap as $800-1000? The job of changing it out does not sound too tough, that comment always ends up kicking my butt, tho!

 

[SWithrow]

If it's the front part it'd be the planetary, not the chain. That is a vague description. There were a rash of them in the early common rail years that were coming from the factory as much as 2 quarts low on oil. This could be one of those and the miles caught up with it.

-Scott

The cases only hold 2qts, that would mean they were dry

 

[SRadke]

NP271 hold 2. 7 quarts. Usually fill with 3. Because they have a pressure lube pump in them they can run quite low with few issues.

 

[tschidas]

NV-271 Failure

I've been waiting see a posting like this, I recently had a NV-271 explode on my 06 Ram w/ 60K, I brought the truck to the dealer assuming it was covered under a 7/70 policy but to my surprise only 3/36 w/ my year truck and specifically on the Diesel package (that makes a light go off!), after getting $2000 est I choose to get a rebuild and do the work myself, as previously noted the jobs not too bad and a re-manufactured transfer case runs about $1000 depending on the core, an exploded case doesn't bring much core. I've attached pic's and as can be seen the chain spun through the case, but only after the main gear had busted in 3 pc's. The dealers claim this is a rare failure but I'm sketical of a poorly casted gear from China or Mex, in any case the real issue I have is w/ the 2002+ Ram and the American Axle front end Dodge now uses w/o manual or auto lock outs, why does the chain and guts of the 4 wheel portion of the transfer case need to be spinning all the time? Best of luck!

 

[HOBrian]

That's a big hole! On the bright side fluid changes have to be much easier!

 

[rscurtis]

I would say that the cost of that failure paid for most of the cost of a Dynatrac system.

 

[DPKetchum]

Chrysler Parts Direct - Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep Parts and accessories show transfer case NEW for under $900

 

[WStephens]

when my truck had about 45K I was driving back from Wyoming and had a vibration and as it started to get dark the head lights in my rear view mirror were vibrating. When I stopped in Grand Island, NE for the night and fuel I checked the front drive shaft and the CV was bad. The local Dealer got me in the next day and the u-joints and the CV were bad since they have sealed bearings. The CV was broken and there was one bad u-joint on the rear drive shaft. They replaced the front drive shaft and the bad u-joint on the rear shaft. The Dealer said the most of the time the trucks have been run until the transfercase has failed. So if you fell a new vibration check the CV before it takes out the transfercase.

 

[THaslett]

We have replaced a few of these units, all have been caused because of a vibration, all have been front driveshaft double cardan joint failed, however, ours broke the front output side of the case in half. Go with a oe case as stated, no core, best deal we've found by far. Pay attention to noises/vibration etc, it will save you mucho dinero... .

 

[KBrody]

Tcase fluid type

Question about fluid type for the tcase. Everybody with the G56 is switching from ATF to synchromesh gear lube. What about running it in the tcase or some other type of gear lube?

 

[steved]

I have ran Royal Purple SynchroMax and currently run Redline MTL in my transfercase... I ran the RP for over 180k before switching to RL. Truck sits with 255k on the clock, but I change the fluid every 15k to 30k. The synchromesh-type fluids are really close in viscosity to ATF+4.

The main thing to remember on these newer cases is they have an oil pump, and the oil pumps don't like thick oils.

 

[FParisi]

I had that happen in my '95 - big hole in the side! I believe in the 2500 at that time the light duty transfer case had a retainer clip that would break allowing the gears to engage partially. I had it replaced with the heavy duty TC + had no further trouble.