New owner here. Possible Transfer Case Issue?

tiicarrera

New member
Hello all,
Bear with me as I am a new Defender 90 owner having just bought a 1995 Defender NAS a couple of weeks ago. While I'm new to Defenders, I'm not new to classic Euro cars. The Defender is just the latest addition to the collection. I bought the car a couple of weeks ago from BAT and drove it from Tampa to New Orleans without it missing a beat. It has 128K miles. The gearbox was rebuilt a year ago and I have the maintenance records going back to new.


On Friday as I was taking out for a spin, I noticed the "clunking" noise during some tight turns in a parking lot. At first I thought the tires were rubbing on the fender, but then realized that couldn't be. Then about 20 mins later, I was stopped at a red light. Light turned green, put it in first, but had no drive at all. Tried every gear, and the engine only revs. Called tow truck and took it to my local mechanic. Synopsis is it's not the transmission. Probably the Transfer Case. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but before I pull out the TC and send it to get rebuilt, I want to make sure I have diagnosed the issue completely.


Any other things I should check before I just assume it's the TC? From reading on the interwebs, I understand that a bad CV joint could cause lack of drive as well? Is there a step I could take to definitively rule in (or out) the transfer case? Yes, I made sure the diff gear shift was not knocked out of gear. Any and all help is appreciated!
 

javelinadave

Administrator
Staff member
First off welcome to our friendly forum.
Lock up the diff in the transfer case (move the lever to the left) and see if it drives. If so it’s probably a front CV joint. If not it is probably a transfer case issue.
 

rocky

NAS-ROW Addict
The clanking on turns says torque wind up to me which isn't good on hard roads. I'm praying that all its done is "pop" into neutral.
So now we need to get it into High and unlocked.....
Then pray all is well....
But I might drain it to and hope not to see any metal chunks.
 

tiicarrera

New member
Locked the diff and it drove forward. Front driveshaft spins. Clunking sound coming from right front, so it has to be the axle or the CV. Could also hear the clank from the right front when just pushing the truck while in neutral.

Thanks for the help!
 

tiicarrera

New member
So I finally had time to tear down the passenger side last night. Looks like I definitely found the issue. That old CV Joint was in pieces. Amazing how fragile these things are.
 

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Napalm00

Technical Excellence Contributor
They aren't really fragile. It probably has been beat on it's entire life with little to no maintenance.
 

FlyersFan76

Well-known member
So I finally had time to tear down the passenger side last night. Looks like I definitely found the issue. That old CV Joint was in pieces. Amazing how fragile these things are.


I was hoping that the facebook post that I saw this morning was going to make its way to the forums.


I hadn't dug deep into mine yet but your symptoms are the same as mine.
 

Red90

Well-known member
I was hoping that the facebook post that I saw this morning was going to make its way to the forums.

I hadn't dug deep into mine yet but your symptoms are the same as mine.

Doubtful in your case. You have an early axle. The halfshafts and diff are weaker than the CV joints. Thy almost always break the halfshafts at the diff as it is the weak point.

Later axles are stupidly weak at the halfshaft side of the CV and that is where they break.
 

FlyersFan76

Well-known member
Doubtful in your case. You have an early axle. The halfshafts and diff are weaker than the CV joints. Thy almost always break the halfshafts at the diff as it is the weak point.

Later axles are stupidly weak at the halfshaft side of the CV and that is where they break.


Gotcha. Thanks again. Hopefully I can full diagnose because I head out of town so I can get parts on order.
 
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