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Transfer Case Leak Repair


Check Your Car's Transfer Case Leak

Transfer case is an important part found in all the four wheel drive vehicles. It is attached to the car's transmission as well as to the rear and front axles with the help of two drive shafts. The transmission provides power to the transfer case and transmits it to the axles. Usually this is done with a gear. Most transfer cases made these days are chain driven. On some motor vehicles it is run by the car's driver and on others they are electronically operated with the help of a switch. Vehicles such as sports cars have non-selectable transfer case that is locked permanently.

There are various types of transfer cases. They are manual transfer case; chain drive transfer case and Electronic Shift On-the-Fly transfer case. Manual transfer cases come with a selector lever onside the floor of the driver's seat. It has either two manual front axle hub selectors or two sealed automatic front axle locking hubs. The vehicle must be stopped completely or rolled slowly to engage or disengage it. A Chain-driven transfer case sometimes utilizes a chain to maneuver on the front axle nevertheless it has the capacity to drive both the axles. These transfer cases are lighter and quieter than the gear-driven ones. Electronic Shift On-the-Fly transfer case comes with a dash-mounted switch with a front sealed automatic securing axle hubs.

Transfer case failures are usually caused due to:

  • Negligence and lack of regular maintenance,
  • Leaks from case halves or seal,
  • Overloading, overheating and other actions clear of the design criteria of the transfer case,
  • Mechanical components do deteriorate and finally cause the transfer case to fail.

Leak from the transfer case is a common problem and it need to be fixed as soon as possible. If it leaks for a long duration it can damage your transfer case. Other than that, if it gets locked up, your transmission can get destroyed.

To find out if there is any leak in the transfer case is quite easy. Firstly jack up your vehicle, crawl below it and check out the catalytic converter. Look the floor pan, if you see fluids or if it is wet you will know that there is a leak.

To fix the transfer case, remove the down pipe. You will find the mounting point of the transfer case highlighted with white line. The drain plug has purple arrow painted to it while the fill plug has a red arrow. Remove the case from the car for better visibility. Get a 24mm socket to drain the case from the base drain plug.

It is not compulsory to take out the transfer case. However, the main reason to remove it is only to check the output and input to lube with bearing grease, since the factory grease may dry out and provide no protection for the wear.

If you want to seal the yoke, all you have to do is just drag the entire driveshaft. Cleanly unscrew the 4 bolts that hold the driveshaft and unscrew the 2 carrier bearings. Pull the driveshaft back and out. You can even repair the transfer case while it is still on the car.

Clean it out and carefully coat the bottom plug with RTV. Make sure that the RTV goes into the splines as well. Before filling up the transfer case with fluid make sure that the RTV has dried completely, or else it may leak again.

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