T-case lever won't move

As the title states. My t-case lever won't pull back at all. It is a 96 with a NP231 and AW4. I do have too much time right now as my patilla tendon is ruptured in my leg. Waiting till the Fiancee' goes shopping to sneak into the garage.:shhh: I did search but none state the lever is stuck or that it does at least move.

The linkage goes through the floor and eventually connects to the t-case. One of the joints is probably badly rusted. I would advise a visual inspection and spray everything with some PB Blaster. If you don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary, loosen the adjusting nut on the linkage and see if you can manually shift the t-case by pushing on the arm that connects to the linkage.

If it is just rust causing the binding you could also apply heat and see if you can get it to move and then spray it well and shift it through all positions until is freely moves.

IN my experience the place that rusts first and worst is the bushing that passes through the floor hump. If the linkage is rusted, you'll usually feel some play in the lever, but if the lever is very stiff, suspect that bushing. It's hard to reach, but you might be able to get a stream of penetrant up to it from below, or if you lift the console up you can blast it with something from the top. If you can get it moving at all, start working it up and down. After between 50 and a hundred strokes, it should start to limber up.

We got a 97ZJ last October that the linkage was frozen on, I sprayed the heck out if it with PB and freed it up then sprayed it some more with royal purple synthetic spray lube. I don't think 4wd had ever been used on that ZJ. At any rate I've always made it a part of my maintenance during oil changes to spray the linkages under there with either Mobil-1 spray lube back when I could find it, now I use royal purple and all the linkages on all 6 jeeps work fine, no binding. I actually put a spritz of lube on everything under there including bolts.

Thanks for the idea's guys. When my leg stops cramping up I'll get the creeper out and take a couple hours and do it.:gee: