Attention: TDR Forum Junkies This is the subject, I know, that prompts the throwing of rotted vegetables, 'cause it's been hashed-over so many times, so I broach it with a certain amount of fear and trepidation. 
My friggin' transfer case shifter is buzzing like a hive of Africanized honey bees, and I haven't been able to stop it.
I've gone throug the shop manual, and read the TDR threads on the subject. I've removed both shifter boots, and spent a half hour under the truck wiggling the shifter from below, as though that exercise might suggest an obvious cure.
It didn't.
I've read about "Mitsubishi exhaust springs" that are supposed to be retrofitted over the existing shifter tensioning spring, but the only spring I could find during my under-the-truck session, looked like three loops of coiled wire (around base of shifter lever) that terminated by having its ends bent into bracket holes. There's no way, that I could figure out to add another, heavier, spring over this existing one; it's not 'round,' it's "U" shaped, so there'd be no way to slide another spring over it.
The spring on the base of my shifter is also pretty loose; it has virtually no tension at all. You can take the spring between index finger and thumb, and move it to and fro, very easily.
The white plastic lining on the top of my shift gate is still in position, and still performing its job of isolating the metal shifter shaft from the walls of the gate, so the buzzing isn't coming from there. As far as I could gather by reading about it, that was the only curable problem addressed in Dodge's TSB on the subject.
When I first bought the truck, the buzzing was only noticeable in one rpm range, and only infrequently. When it got to be a bother, I stuffed some napkins in the shifter well, and forced the shifter to the right. That worked for a couple of years. When I had a phone installed on a "stalk," I took to really pulling the shifter over, hard, and tying it off to the base of the phone stalk. That cured things for a while, too.
Now, though, nothing works. I've tried moving the shifter to every position, and sometimes I can drive along hunting the 'sweet spot,' but mostly the buzzing is now almost continuous.
I've left the two boots off, and hope that somebody can offer up the latest "silver bullet" solution to this sucker, 'cause it's really beginning to get on my nerves.
Oh, yeah—I've also searched the TDR archives, and read everything published on the subject in my back issues (back to TDR #17).
I understand that there was an old thread that dealt with this subject very comprehensively, but it has since been removed. Anybody know anything about retrieving old, inactive threads. I've used the "search" function, and couldn't find it.
I with somebody would do a TDR article, complete with pictures, on how to cure this problem, once and for all.
Thanks for any suggestions anyone cares to offer.
My friggin' transfer case shifter is buzzing like a hive of Africanized honey bees, and I haven't been able to stop it.
I've gone throug the shop manual, and read the TDR threads on the subject. I've removed both shifter boots, and spent a half hour under the truck wiggling the shifter from below, as though that exercise might suggest an obvious cure.
It didn't.
I've read about "Mitsubishi exhaust springs" that are supposed to be retrofitted over the existing shifter tensioning spring, but the only spring I could find during my under-the-truck session, looked like three loops of coiled wire (around base of shifter lever) that terminated by having its ends bent into bracket holes. There's no way, that I could figure out to add another, heavier, spring over this existing one; it's not 'round,' it's "U" shaped, so there'd be no way to slide another spring over it.
The spring on the base of my shifter is also pretty loose; it has virtually no tension at all. You can take the spring between index finger and thumb, and move it to and fro, very easily.
The white plastic lining on the top of my shift gate is still in position, and still performing its job of isolating the metal shifter shaft from the walls of the gate, so the buzzing isn't coming from there. As far as I could gather by reading about it, that was the only curable problem addressed in Dodge's TSB on the subject.
When I first bought the truck, the buzzing was only noticeable in one rpm range, and only infrequently. When it got to be a bother, I stuffed some napkins in the shifter well, and forced the shifter to the right. That worked for a couple of years. When I had a phone installed on a "stalk," I took to really pulling the shifter over, hard, and tying it off to the base of the phone stalk. That cured things for a while, too.
Now, though, nothing works. I've tried moving the shifter to every position, and sometimes I can drive along hunting the 'sweet spot,' but mostly the buzzing is now almost continuous.
I've left the two boots off, and hope that somebody can offer up the latest "silver bullet" solution to this sucker, 'cause it's really beginning to get on my nerves.
Oh, yeah—I've also searched the TDR archives, and read everything published on the subject in my back issues (back to TDR #17).
I understand that there was an old thread that dealt with this subject very comprehensively, but it has since been removed. Anybody know anything about retrieving old, inactive threads. I've used the "search" function, and couldn't find it.
I with somebody would do a TDR article, complete with pictures, on how to cure this problem, once and for all.
Thanks for any suggestions anyone cares to offer.
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