Attention: TDR Forum Junkies I think that just about all of these first gen trucks have some sort of a rattle associated with the transfer case shifter. I have heard of people using bungee cords to hold it in a certain position to keep it from rattling so bad, but other than that, I think most of us have lived with it ( I hope I'm not the only poor sap with that dang rattle). Well a couple of days ago, while laying in bed waiting for my alarm to go off, I had an epiphany. I had just finished a few days earlier hooking the linkage back up (so I was intimately familiar with it by this time), and my initial idea was a miserable failure. So this is what I did the second time, and I would say it eliminated about 85% of the rattle in my shifter.
The linkage runs down through the floor board and hooks to the shift rails, mine is now kept in place by a hitch pin and a rubber washer. Below that is a flat plate that is essentially a guide for shifting into 4 high and 4 low. There are 2 slots in this plate, the shifter runs in one as a guide and the other is empty, the piece between these 2 slots is what the shifter rattles against (at least mine does). I went to the local hardware store and bought a piece of 3/4 ID vinyl hose ( you will need less than one foot, and could probably use a smaller ID hose, but I was guessing at the time) cut off a piece about 3 inches long and then cut it long ways. You need to slide this around the piece that divides the 2 slots, it should fit in the spot where the shifter rides while in 2 high. Zip tie it into place (kind of ghetto, I know). I then had to take a dremel tool and clearance a little out of the notch that is towards the 4 high side of the plate, so it would shift into 4 high. Be sure to test and make sure you can shift the t-case into all the gears. Voila, that's it. On my test drive, the rattle was all but gone. Hopefully this will last. The whole thing cost about $1, and you can't see it, so it's better than a bungee cord. Hopefully when you crawl under the truck you'll see how the shifter works, and this will be a lot clearer than it sounds. The arrow in the image below shows where the hose should be. Hope this works for some of you
The linkage runs down through the floor board and hooks to the shift rails, mine is now kept in place by a hitch pin and a rubber washer. Below that is a flat plate that is essentially a guide for shifting into 4 high and 4 low. There are 2 slots in this plate, the shifter runs in one as a guide and the other is empty, the piece between these 2 slots is what the shifter rattles against (at least mine does). I went to the local hardware store and bought a piece of 3/4 ID vinyl hose ( you will need less than one foot, and could probably use a smaller ID hose, but I was guessing at the time) cut off a piece about 3 inches long and then cut it long ways. You need to slide this around the piece that divides the 2 slots, it should fit in the spot where the shifter rides while in 2 high. Zip tie it into place (kind of ghetto, I know). I then had to take a dremel tool and clearance a little out of the notch that is towards the 4 high side of the plate, so it would shift into 4 high. Be sure to test and make sure you can shift the t-case into all the gears. Voila, that's it. On my test drive, the rattle was all but gone. Hopefully this will last. The whole thing cost about $1, and you can't see it, so it's better than a bungee cord. Hopefully when you crawl under the truck you'll see how the shifter works, and this will be a lot clearer than it sounds. The arrow in the image below shows where the hose should be. Hope this works for some of you
