Grinding Gears

[Landloper]

Just bought a '79 K5, 350 4x4, Auto transmission converted from manual. Had sat at least 6 months. Didn't run, trucked it home, installed starter, got it going. Had to put 3 quarts of transmission fluid in it. It ran OK considering, drove it a few miles, then the teenagers drove it in the driveway, and the auto transmission and the transfer case both started grinding when they shifted. They were the first to move the transfer case lever. The auto trans. would grind, even shifting into park, but the truck would roll in park. The transfer case lever ground some too. I moved the transfer case lever some, and managed to get the trans. shifted into gear, and it seemed to drive OK. Then I parked it. This is (obviously) my first 4wd - can anyone tell me what's going on? The trans. case lever has lo lock, lo, neutral, hi, and hi lock on it, but it is hard to tell what position it is in. Thanks for the help. I learned a lot already from reading your posts.

 

[tRustyK5]

It sounds like one of the "teenagers" moved the T-case lever into the neutral position. This explains the grinding you heard and also why the truck would still roll in park. With the T-case in neutral the tranny continues to turn even if the truck is stopped, it would be the same as shifting into park or reverse when the truck is moving.
Eventually you'll be able to tell what position the T-case lever is in just through familiarity, my NP 205 has no markings on it at all. On mine I have memorized how many detents from one end each range is.
As you can see neutral is the next position to Hi, so apparently the shifter was either bumped or it was moved and then not shifted all the way back into Hi.

Rene

 

[Blue85]

That's right. Even in neutral, the output shaft of a transmission will sometimes turn, unless there is a little resistance on it. If the fluid isn't very warm, you can get some grinding while shifting the T-case because the clutch packs still have enough drag in them to spin the output shaft of the tranny unless Park is fully engaged. I scratched my head over this before until I realized that it was grinding in neutral, but not in park. Inside the transmission, Nuetral and Park are exactly the same thing, except that Park has a mechanical lock that engages on the output shaft. Otherwise Park is Neutral.

"Big? No, these tires might be big for your Jeep, but they're just temporary for my K-5"

 

[Landloper]

Thanks for the assistance. I will be checking and changing fluids, then, it's off to the local power line right of way to try it out.