Jeep stranded till morning, possibly t-case slip

Tonight i was driving home going about 60, on highway 361 coming from port a, then heard some pops then an awful grinding/slipping noise coming from either the t-case or tranny. I pulled over, got out and checked to see what could have happened. From the outside everything looks normal and the atf level is good, but whenever Im in gear 2wd and giving it gas the noise will come back and i dont want to try to move any further. It will continue making the noise until i shift to neutral or park.

I tried shifting into 4wd to see if the noise happened then. Luckily no horrible grinding/slipping noise but you could hear and feel a pop like something was binding up. I was able to limp in 4wd to a parking lot by driving in the grass on the side of the highway.

From there i called my dad and got a ride home, it was too dark and i did not have any tools to help troubleshoot. I will come back tomorrow morning and get a better look. Hopefully i can get it home so i can better asses what is wrong.

The only previous indicator that i could think of is i would sometimes hear an occasional pop while accelerating out of sharp turns in 2wd. It was coming from under my seat and i just assumed a U-joint might be loose or something.

Help in any way would be appreciated.

Jeep is still stranded, its hard finding a way to get it back in town or a shop with it being the 4th of July.

If there is any way one of you in corpus with a trailer and truck could possibly tow my jeep back into town it would be greatly appreciated. I know most of you are on the PINS expedition and camping trip right now.

Just to give you a heads up, I sent a PM to Raul, screen name runda. He is in Corpus and may be able to help out. Keep in mind, most are out doing 4th of July stuff. I'm sure they can help when they hear about ya.

If anyone has Raul's number, maybe give a shout out.

Good Luck

Stacy

Thank you Stacy!

I know most of y'all are doing 4th of July stuff so don't stop your plans to help me out. I'm not in dire need of it back in town and i can get it towed tomorrow but it would give me piece of mind to have it back as soon as possible.

I'm going to check the jeep out right now so ill be out there, my phone number is 361-779-8176.

Isn't Ron Gilbert over that way...a little further up the coast line, but worth a shot!

I am 3.5 hours away and on my 5th shiner..... doesn't look good.

I know there is someone in Corpus that can help him out.

I will post it on JKO

Done gotter did...

I think his spider gears are shot in the turdy five

Good news!

... the recovery part anyway.

WooHoo!

Id like to thank everyone who helped me get the jeep back home, really appreciate going out of your way! Its good to know i can count on jeep-nation if im ever in a bind.

Well i have not opened the diff yet, im saving that for after work tomorrow but ill be sure to get pics of the damage. Hopefully it won't be to much longer til im able to drive it again.

roadkill wrote:

Done gotter did...

I think his spider gears are shot in the turdy five

Thanks Scott!!

beachedjeepyj wrote:

Id like to thank everyone who helped me get the jeep back home, really appreciate going out of your way! Its good to know i can count on jeep-nation if im ever in a bind.

Well i have not opened the diff yet, im saving that for after work tomorrow but ill be sure to get pics of the damage. Hopefully it won't be to much longer til im able to drive it again.

Glad to know you got your Jeep back home Daniel!

Good news and bad news... Good news is its not the spiders and there is no damage to the gears themselves.

Now the bad, it seems that my ring gear is loose. The ring gear also carved a nice groove into the diff cover. So my question is what to do next?

Here are some pictures and a crappy video. Click the last image to view the video.

Is the ring gear loose on the carrier or is the whole carrier loose?

your carrier is broken at the snout where the bearing sits on the ring side.

Time for an air locker

The whole carrier is loose.

might be bad bearings. dump it all and go with a Dana 44!

I would swap in a stronger axle if i had the resources and the know how... My options are more realistically either finding a "good" 35 to swap in or fixing whats broken and upgrading my current 35.

Completely understand, but weigh out your options. The cost of repairing your 35 might be a bit high. Might be better to do some recycling at the local salvage yard for a complete swap out and still might have to do some rebuilding to make a salvaged axle work! This is one of those things where it might not be cheap any route you go, so its worth fixing it right! See if someone can look at it that knows what they are doing and go from there.

Agree! It might be easier to find a 44 in a junk yard or even craig's. If the carrier is broken it's going to cost.

Take the bolts off the cap that holds the carrier in on the gear side. keep it located the same way you pull it out!!!! Bearing race and all it needs to go back the same way it came out. Check to see if the bearing is messed up or if the carrier is broken! Let us know!

Might be time for an 8.8 out of an explorer. bolt on swap and easily found. What gears you have now?

Ok so the bearing on the left side is toast.... i also seem to be missing the lock bolt for the diff pinion shaft.






on another note what kind of work is included in swapping in an 8.8 or 44? I have 3.07 gears now.

an 8.8 will basicly be be a bolt in swap with possible exception for the parking brake, cables won't interchange I think but that is an easy thing to overcome. not sure if they came with 3.07s or not. basicly no matter what gears it has you will be back rolling in 2wd and then will need to work on a gear swap up front. the 8.8 is probably your cheapest swap and can be arguably just as strong as a 44. they're close enough in strength either one would be fine IMO...

go with a late 90's 8.8 out of an explorer. Those had 31 spline shafts and disc brakes. Other 8.8s out of cars had the 27 spline shafts IIRC.

THere is also a company that sells bolt in 8.8s but i remember it being on the pricey side.

SO using an explorer 8.8 i wouldn't have to cut and weld in new spring perches or shock mounts? They are the same as the yj? I did some looking around and found that 3.07 were available but they are not the common ratio.

looks like you have to weld new perches on but thats simple and I'm sure someone here can do that for you.