231 tcase R & R......

Ok drained the tcase last night and pulled the broken bolts while it was draining. Apparently it was waaaay low on fluid. I would assume some came out after we pulled the rear shaft and b4 I could get the mountain dew bottle on the tail cone. The bottle went on as soon as we had the heep on dry land! It was about a 20-30 mile trip home. Near the end it would occasonally skip. Not sure if it was the motor or the tcase chain. When I drained the fluid it was red and smelled burnt there are no shavings in it that I could see. I can also see a shift fork pad in there. So question is, do I get a rebuild kit? Where? Or do I just order the shift fork pads and go with it? I have a case that cracked and all the insides were good. Hell they look new. Any thoughts?

what happened exactly? have you opened it up yet?

Well See Here! In a nut shell, I threw the rear shaft trying to cross some muddy terain. Once we got it out I caped it with a Mountain Dew bottle and electrical tape. Then drove about 20 miles home.

Anyone got any thoughts?

Fill'er back up and order you a rebuild kit if it needs it. Search the net for NP231 parts.Try drivetrain specialists, I bought a master rebuild kit from them last summer. Chain is probably ok as the teeth on the sprockets are big enough that it won't slip unless the chain is way past slapping the case when turning.

Ok, the chain is brownish? Does it look streached?



More of what I found so far.



What lead me inside to start with!

Sorry for the delay, chain looks good, if the chain slaps the lower case when you turn the front driveshaft it's trashed. Did the oil have metal particles or filings in it. Also check the large round magnet located just below the lower sprocket in the forward case-clean as nessecary.The oil pump, located on the upper output shaft (rear case) is critical for the oiling of the range hub and forward bearings, it's only $40 to replace. Now would be the time if your in question about it's integrity, with only twenty miles on the road with low oil quantity it's probably okay. One other thing to remember is to use RTV sparingly on the case halves so it doesn't plug up the pump inlet. Clean the inlet screen.

The magnet only had miniscual amounts of shavings. I blew the screen out. The fluid was really low but it was red and clean. Just smelled like it was burnt. Which I contribute to the melted plastic pieces that rid between the fork and the collar. Incedently the internal collar and pads were fine? They are higher up but fared better? What is up with that? Back to work!

Oh yeah, make sure you install the range hub correctly when changing the shift fork tips, long side of the hub to long side of the shift rail. I learned the hard way. It will reassemble and will not shift fully into low range and will pop out. Requires disassembly to correct this. Good luck and let us know how it all works out.