First time out, now rattling noise

Yesterday the jeep and I had our first wheeling adventure. Nothing too crazy, mostly mud and some holes. It was right next to the river and it rained the day before so there was water everywhere. The hardest thing I tried was a jeep sized hole. There was water just above the center caps and the mud was really thick. I couldnt make it up out of the hole because the ruts were cut too deep and my front diff and crossmember bottomed out. I backed out of it fine.
On the way home I noticed a rattling sound. It wasnt the engine because it only did it while moving. I thought maybe mud in the brakes or something. I washed her off today really good and then took her out for a drive. The rattling starts around 20 mph and then gets drowned out at 55mph. Its not connected to the rpm's and doesnt stop when I'm braking. I changed the front Diff. fluid today but didn't get to the back cause it started to rain.
I'm assuming its from the back axle but really cant tell. Do you think I could have messed up a bearing in mud? The front diff fluid was fine. The back is a Chr. 8.25 so I dont know if the seals are crap and I got water in it.
I'm sorry I'm rambling on I just want to give as much info here as possible. Its a stock 93 sport. I cant feel any vibrations from it. Any help would be GREATLY apreciated!

your rattle sounds like the one i had. Have you checked your Tcase oil lately? mine was shot. bad rear seal. no oil. cracked everywehre but unnoticeable becuase of the lack of oil when i baught it. drove it. wheeled it. it went in an out of 4hi an lo fine there was just enough oil in it to keep it from sezing. bottom line. about a month after i baught it i was getting a rattleing noise. first i thought it was a u joint. so i chenged them. still rattled. turned out the rattle was a peice of the tailcone that broke off and was bouncing around inside. i picked a new tcase up for 150$. no more noise.

You know of a link where I could find a link on servicing the transfer case?

best tool i found was a FSM. however a quick check of your fluid in there is very simple. if you look on the back of the tcase. youll see 2 plugs a lower and an upper... remove the upper get a flash light and peek inside the fluid should be at the botoom of that plug. if you have fluid you should be fine unless its a bearing.

Tcase is golden! got under there yesterday and changed the fluid and its all good. I did get to find the sorce of the rattling too. On the inside of the muffler and the cat there is a very nice sized dent going the lenght of them, and in front of the cat is a rusty clamp that got snapped. I couldnt see it from the side looking under and when i tried the grab and shake method of trying to locate the rattle it didnt seem to budge. I have to replace the clamp and if thats not it I probably killed the cat. Thanks for the help

rattly cat is agrivating . common break part though

Got under the jeep this weekend and came out really p***ed off. I cut the snapped clamp off and put a new one on. No dice. Then I removed the cat and that was fine, so I found a dirt road to go on and try out the 4wd. When I engaged 4hi it was smooth then when I went into 4lo I could feel crazy vibes from the shifter and couldnt get it in 4lo. So now I need a new Tcase. My bro has a 97 Grand that has the np242 I have to research on the compatability cause I dont know when they switched from 21 spline to 23. And I have never done anything this involved. I'm baffled by how I could have messed up the transfer case in mud. I'm mad so I'm venting sorry to b*tch. If any one has any knowledge or a link that could ease my research ahead I'd appreciate it. Also if the Tcase is bad and failes will that render the jeep usless or just the 4wd

Before you go pulling the tcase out, check to be sure that the shift linkage is intact and adjusted properly. If you knocked the linkage out of whack, you may not be able to pull far enough to get into 4lo.

Rob

I'll second what Rob has suggested, save your self a pile of effort and aggravation, sort out what is wrong with your transfer case BEFORE you spend money and time replacing it, it may just be the adjustment, it's a very common problem.

Would the linkage cause the rattling?

Mutant_Xj said:

Would the linkage cause the rattling?

Click to expand...

seriously, anthing that is bolted on in a Jeep will rattle at one point or another. check it. everything rattles on my MJ

I'm at my parents house right now working on the jeep. I went to adjust the linkage for the transfer case. Manually by using the lever on the tcase I could only get it to shift into 4hi. I tried moving the lever both ways and it felt like there was only two options. Do I have to spin the drive shafts to get the tcase into neutral or could this mean its messed up? I read about pulling bushing off somewhere but didnt know if there is one that could bind up the lever on the tcase.

Saturday night I was driving and the rattling got really loud and continuous then it stopped and a couple seconds later there was a loud pop, now there is no rattling at all. I parked it and there was no fluid leaking anywhere. I cant get under it yet because the weather is too cold and we're expecting snow tonight. I'm afraid to try to put it into 4wd incase ther is a problem with it and it never came out of 4wd in the first place. could the selecter fork be messed up and have caused a problem? Just lost and looking for answers thanks