TheJerm

It clunks or knocks as I start from a stop and the bearing whines on the highway. When I was measuring for a new driveshaft I noticed I can move the slip yoke/output shaft up, down, left and right with my hands. So there's excessive play there from a bad bearing.

x91j

Oh. Hmm idkbif its my bearing because its just sounds like a shhhhhh noises when driving. I'm hoping its just low on fluid

gvns8

Check your front axle diff fluid also, and the bearings. If you want to be sure it is the t/c you could also prop up the rear axle (and you could also take off the rear wheels/brakes for safety) and put it in drive and get down there and listen to the t/c- thats what I had to do and realized how bad it really was. It is hard to tell in the jeep if it is really sounding that bad.

x91j

I'm not connected to the front axle as of now. No front ds.

x91j

Soo it was low on fluid drove it. Noise still there. Can the bearing still be loud without it spinning

gvns8

You should just go buy an atlas

But with your t/c, the worst case is that the bearing might burn out and get a lot louder at which point you would just have to stop driving it and rebuild the t/c. When my transfercase was making a swirling noise/vibrating I was about to be traveling a couple thousand miles in a move so I made sure I fixed it before then. This is just the way I see it, but if the noise is something you can live with you could probably put it off until it gets worse-maybe you'll be lucky and it won't get any worse.

It isn't too difficult to rebuild though, just time consuming and tedious.

x91j

Sorry to sound like a pain in the *** but how do I know which bearing is actually bad once I'm in there? All I know Is that the yoke on the front ds when i spin it it sounds like marbles but it doesn't move in 2wd. So Idk. It's gotta be that one

gvns8

Well if you get a rebuild kit they come with all the bearings and seals so you would replace all of them and it should probably be obvious which one is bad once you spin them by hand/feel for side to side play. Bad mode shift fork pads would also cause the same sound your are describing, and only cost like $2 at the dealer so you should plan on replacing those too. Also check the chain and see if it is hitting the case possibly leaving marks on the bottom indicating a worn chain. Finally you want to look at your planetary gears and make sure none of the small thrust washers on the top and the bottom of each gear is cracked or the large thrust washers and also insert the input gear into the planetary assembly and rotate the planetary assembly making sure it spins freely/smoothly to make sure your planetery gears are not bad.

x91j

In all honesty it would prolly be easier to just grab one for 70$

gvns8

Very true. In fact I ended up trying to do that with mine. Before installing it, I cracked it open to make sure it was good. Do you want to see a picture of what it looked like!






Water had gotton into the case and the fluid was all milky (the color of that rag on the workbench) and all the bearings were rusted out along with the chain. The planetary gears were luckily good which was the only part I really needed. And this was off a 2002 wrangler with only 40,000 miles!

Soo....you can take the gamble, but you might end up spending twice the money like I did. Just saying haha.

There is a good place called Border Parts that actually is the direct supplier for a lot of 4x4 shops all over the US and they have a full 231 rebuild kit for only $80. No website but you can look them up give them a call and they will ship it today.

If you have the coin you could even get a 6 gear planetary set from a 241 case off ebay for like $70 or from that shop and make your case about twice as strong.

The convenience is kind of lost buying a replacement because you would definately want to crack the case before buying it. Good luck though!

x91j

So after driving it the noise is only there after fluid gets hot. Is say 10 mins of driving. I put it in 4 hi and lo and it seems to be ok. The sound is only really noticeable in 2wd driving with the windows up. If I'm coasting and tap the gas I crate a chattering marble noise same as if I'm applying minimum throttle for about 30 seconds. I'm confused. I want to go wheeling this week but I wanna also figure out the problem without ripping her apart because this is my dd. Sorry for being a pain

gvns8

You could try draining it and putting in new synthetic atf4+ transmission fluid if you haven't changed it recently. Maybe you just have bad fluid?

If that doesn't help I don't know what to tell you. Maybe others might have some insight, but there is no real way that I know of to diagnose your t-case without opening it. If you buy a j/y case it is a gamble if you don't open it to check it and could just be a waste of $80, but maybe you will get lucky. If you are going to take the gamble you could try to look through the drain hole and check the color of the fluid which would give you at least an idea if the new case is decent, but you can't see everything.

If it were me I would just wheel it this weekend as long as you are not alone. Then I would get the parts to rebuild it with it being your dd and all, do some research on how to rebuild it, and then give yourself the weekend to rebuild it (probably like 8hrs total less with air tools). Either that or pay a shop ~$350 to rebuild it. Thats just me though because of my past experiences, others would probably say risk it and get the j/y case. Good luck!

x91j

Atf4 goes in there? I'm pretty sure I put dextron 3

gvns8

Yea I think thats what it calls for. I just put ATF +4 in there due to the newer cases (wranglers) now using that.

x91j

Possible that's my problem