T case linkage

After two days of good rock crawling action I couldn’t get my truck to come out of 4wd. I have the disco kind so I figured it was just stuck but when it wouldn’t disengage after a wile I climbed under to see if there was a problem. The linkage was all out of whack. There was a rod that some of the linkages rivet on that looked like it should be in a hole in this plate thing so I put it in and that kicked the slip coupler on the axel. So I jumped in and drove home. The rod had a grove in it at the end that looked like it might take a clip or something. The next time I tried to put it in 4wd it wouldn’t go. That was on the way home (road construction detour). So I haven’t been back under there to see if the rod came back out but I figure as much. The question is am I missing some parts? Has this happened to any of you before? I’m wishing I had looked at this thing more closely before.

The linkages are supposed to go into a plastic bushing that snaps tight over that little groove without any separate clips. It sounds as if one of the bushings broke.

So there is supposed to be a piece that goes in the plate that acts as the bushing and also clips into the grove? Would that be a dealer item? By the way I have a 231 if that maters.

Bronco said:

So there is supposed to be a piece that goes in the plate that acts as the bushing and also clips into the grove? Would that be a dealer item? By the way I have a 231 if that maters.

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Yes, there should be plastic inserts into which the pins of the linkage snap. My recollection of the details is kind of dim, but as I recall, the plastic bushing presses into the lever, and the rod snaps into that. The bushing retains the rod, and also expands the bushing in its hole. They're hard to get out alive, but not terribly hard to put back together.

I expect that it's a dealer item, but have never had to look for them.