Transfer case problem (NP 242) HELP!!

92 XJ 4.0/AW4/NP242. 33's, around 6" lift, stock DS with YJ yoke.
D30 (truetrac)/8.8 (ez locker) 4.88's

For about the past 3 weeks I've been hearing a groaning/grinding sound coming from the transfer case area in between drive/coast of the throttle. (that middle ground)
At first it was not very noticeable, but it has become much louder and now I'm beginning to get vibes around 45. (never did before)
The noise and vibes are loudest in 2wd, and lessen considerably in Full time 4wd. I've been driving around in 4 full just so the noise won't drive me crazy.

I also noticed that there is slight vertical play in the slip yoke and wonder if the problem might be from a faulty output bearing.


Am I correct on this one, or way out in left field. I really want to keep the 242, and just want the horrible noises to go away :bawl:

As always, any and all comments are welcome!

John

Dumb question...have you checked the ATF level?

Mine would sound like that about the time it had 1/3 of the amount of fluid it was supposed to have. The fix was replacing the front and rear output shaft seals and re-filling it since it had almost all leaked out.

Was checked about a month ago...I'll check tomorrow, but no leaks that I know of.

Well, had a chance to get under the Jeep

At first I thought that it was the bearing, but then under further investigation I found out that the actual shaft moves back and forth about 1/4 to 3/8 inch

Through talking to Dirk at DPG, this is runout....correct? And I'm basically screwed and need a rebuild at the least....

Any and all help is appreciated...

John

Another thought is chain stretch. Hard to diagnose over the Internet but I'd look at that as well.

May be cheaper to swap in a low mileage junk yard box. No one likes the 242 so it is our gain for those of us that do. I'd be lost without full-time in the winter.

r@m

Is it your driveshaft that you can move at the slip yoke? If so check your U-joints on your driveshaft.

If you are talking about the shaft that connects to the rear driveshaft i would bt its justa missing snap ring . If you take a look at a part picture you will see that the rear out shaft has a snap ring that prevent it rocking in and out ....check it out b4 you do other things .

pete

Much less movement than I thought...(the snapring was off....yeah, a true blond moment.)

Replaced U-joints
Checked Bearing
Replaced fluid
Out of Ideas and need to move X country in a few weeks

John

When I got my jeep it had this problem....Sounds alot like what you are experiencing.....I had a seized up CV joint in the front shaft. When I was in two wheel drive it was almost undriveable....In full time it was almost barrable.

I was thinking that too... remove the front shaft and drive it around. I don't think you want to use 4-fulltime w/o either driveshaft though.

Well, I didn't give the front DS a thought because it felt like it was coming from the rear of the TC...(by feel, behind the drivers seat) I'll check/replace the front DS Ujoints tomorrow.....

Yep, I had a customer that had been around trying fix a problem with his rear shaft because of all this noise and vibes and I found it was the front shaft all along! The joints were dry as and the slip yoke had a lot of play. Just dropped another low mileage one in and problem solved.

Reading this thread caught my attention (I did a search trying to figure out my problem).

I have been working on my old Cherokee (92 4x4), and after my 3 inch lift install, I began to get a really bad clunking, thunking, scary sound and feel, which got worse and worse, especially when decelerating. On both my previous XJs, this went away when I replaced rear ds u joints. Well, just did that and no change.
So now, a real dumba_ _ question-- could it be coming from my FRONT driveshaft, even when I am in 2wd? I'm thinking maybe replacing the front ds u joints could eliminate this? Also, how much "runout" is acceptable between the slip yoke and transfer case (rear driveshaft)? My angles don't look bad just by eyeballing them)...certainly not worse than in my other two XJs after lifting them 3.5 inches.
I don't rockclimb or even really wheel that much, just have the lift and 4wd to get me into some somewhat inaccessible fishing and hunting spots. Mostly just want to have a sound-driving Jeep that gets me from point a -b with occasional offroading.
BTW, this message board kicks everything else out there. Sound advice without a lot of flaming garbage. You guys have unknowingly helped me keep 3 different XJs on the road by helping me do 99% of what I needed to do all by my lonesome. THANK YOU.

I regeared from 3.55 to 4.56, had a vibe, took out the front shaft, notice alot of play in the slip joint, replaced with shaft from junkyard, problem solved.

If its not the front shaft, try removing the rear shaft. You'll of course need to put it in 4wd Part-Time or else you won't go anywhere.

This thread is a little old...

The problem ended up being a worn out slipyoke.

It has been replaced with a SYE/Custom DS

John