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i was just driving home and there was this noise...

lectric80 said:
In that case, before you open the pumpkin up, raise one front tire off the ground and rotate it. The symptoms you are describing are exactly what I felt when I lost the slip yoke in my front driveline. Granted, mine is a 205 so I could just remove it, but I could feel the problem even without my hubs locked in. I had orginally thought I had a ring gear problem, so I raised one wheel and was turning the wheel when I noticed that the driveline was turning at the slip joint while the remainder stayed put.
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when i was walking beside the truck my wife driving I saw the front shaft turning . it didnt look as if it had problems. when i was doing the bearings I had the drivers side wheel off the ground. I turned the hub/rotor, it would only turn a little bit but the front shaft was turning. the truck was in park though.
for cost effectiveness could i just get a used loaded carrier of the same ratio. and get it put in. Ive never installed gears before. so ill have to tow it or have someone come out to put it in.
I would like to keep driving it as a daily driver. I need to rather cause I work construction and have to haul stuff. I will have to upgrade the axles when this becomes a play toy for sure.
 
thats what a buddy told me. I figured i'd pop the diff cover see if there was any chunks, if not i was gonna pop the tcase cover an see if the chain
 
Yeah, but at least with mine I could compress it a bit and it would grab the splines, but then it would release. Walking beside the truck as it is moving won't tell you anything since it has no choice but to spin in a full time 4x4.

As to the other part, if you find it is truly a bad ring gear you could swap the front end for another with the same gear ratio.
 
should i drop the rear shaft? could I tell if the yoke was bad? If i did drop the shaft and the noises stopped it would be the rear slip yoke then right?
 
Fordum said:
Ask around here for folks who know more about this vehicle than me, but you might be able to drive it for a while with the front driveshaft removed and the transfer case in high lock.
If you need it for a daily driver.
I have seen it done for a short time to get a truck home, and I don't see where it would hurt, but there are people here who can tell you for sure.

Of course, that depends on the condition of the front gears. If a tooth is cracked, then the ring and pinon are already pretty much toast, but you don't want to damage the other parts. A single missing tooth might not hurt to run under no load, but several could cause grenading.

J.
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Yep, you can disconnect the front driveshaft on a 203-equipped rig and drive it in HI-Lock. When I bought mine, the front driveshaft was missing, so I drove it around town just like that until I got a new one in place...about 6 weeks later.

I understand that the 203 can grenade itself if driven this way constantly, due to excessive wear on the internal coupler on the differential. I think 4WOR magazine had a NP203 article in it sometime last year that talked about it.


EDIT: Found the article here - http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/howto/47538/index.html
 
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Could also be a real sloppy chain in the 203 t-case.
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X2 - I agree...chain jumping under load.....


pull the rear driveshaft,,,,,lock it in 4 Hi and try driving on the front axle alone.....see if the noise is still there or gets worse.
 
its not the front end. diff didnt have any chunks of metal in the housing. the fluid was nasty milky full of water and needed to be changed but not the root of my problem.
might be transfer case after all. looked at the slip yoke it could use some grease, will have to get a tube when i go to town.
on the transfer case im a noob. aside from putting oil in it and keeping ujoints in the shafts i dont know what to look for. I know its chain driven. can ya'll give me 1.2.3. steps to check the chain or walk me though what i gotta do to check it out.

I have to beat the rain. Im gonna try to get to town and get back to pull the driveshaft and refill the frontend andtry and see what noises it makes.....
 
Before you start ripping apart the tcase, check the joints in the cv thats bolted to the flange on the front of the tcase. its easier to pull the front driveshaft to check it.
 
so i should pull front shaft 1st. drive it check for noise? the if still there then 2nd put it back in and take out the rear shaft and drive it? then 3rd check rear slip yoke? if none of the above then tear the tcase off?
im not familer with the np203, can i take off a plate to check the chain or do i have to disasemble the case
 
I would definatly check the driveshafts first before I tore into the case. Especially the front, since you said the noise is coming from up front. Put it in Hi Loc, take the front shaft completely out. drive around the block. If the noise is still there, bolt the front back in. Did you say the rear has a slip yoke ?. If so, you will need to somehow cap the end of the case or you will loose tcase fluid. I would just chock the front wheels and pull the rear driveshaft and look and feel for looseness of the ujoints. The kind of noise you say its making you should be able to tell pretty easy if its a ujoint. Also check the grooves of the shaft that slides in the tcase.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Could also be a real sloppy chain in the 203 t-case.
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x2, It's not hard to pull the rear cover on the 203. Like 8 bolts, just keep track of the needle bearings that are in the cover, put some wheel bearing grease on them to hold them in when you put the cover back on. Just use some silicone for a gasket if yours rips. If you don't want to pull the cover just drain the oil in the 203 and see if you see pieces of metal.
 
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if it turns out to be the t case what all do i need to switch to a better case like a 205?
or is the 205 better?
 
You would be changing everything from the adapter, to the drivelines, to the t-case. 205's are definitely a step up, since they don't use a chain at all they are strictly gear drive. But, it isn't an easy operation since you would have to find everything you need then swap it in, plus you are going to want to change to lockouts on the front axle so you reduce the wear on the components.
 
I would be willing to bet you front CV is on the way of death and you need to replace the tranny mounts or T case mounts on the cross member. My 75 had this issue. Got my new front shaft put it in and rompt it one good time and blam blam blam! The shaft was banging the cross member when the motor was torqued. Got new poly mounts and presto fixed! My old mounts were almost the consistency of petrolium jelly!!!!!!
 
This is a full time 4wd?

I just flipped through 4 pages and no one has mentioned to check the axle joints at the knuckle. Unless I missed it?

This sounds very much like the axle shaft u-joints have let go.
 
Wanted to add a way to check if its the tranny mounts. Drop the front shaft, put the tcase in high lock. Drive it "SLOWLY" a block or two. If it is in the front axle then you bumpin and bangin will still happen. If the problem suddenly gone away, its your mounts. Before going through all that just inspect the fron CV and see if it looks like it has rubbed or grinded on something, I would post a pick on where to look but at work now.
 
it was the front cv in the double joint, the case was crumpled against the ball. 2 of the ujoints were completely dry and when i dropped the shaft the caps came off spilling needle bearings and rust dust. so Im off to the machine shop to get the shaft rebuilt, will have the slip joint looked at too. or can i get a kit with the parts to fix it.
all of the transmission, tcase, and all bushings look to be original. so i wil be putting those in too. thanks for all the help. also how tight should the tcase chain be? should there me any slack?
 
Guess I should have mentioned that the CV joint was bad in my shaft, that's what took out the slip joint. No kit around that I have found, and a replacement slip yoke was pretty spendy. I ended up getting a shaft from a newer 208 equipped truck then cutting it down to work with my 205.
 
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