zgetman

I have a 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee, with a 3.5" lift, and 31" tires.

I am having an issue with what I think is my Transfer Case. I had a popping sound coming from the front and I thought it was a ball joint. I found out it was my transfer case a few days ago when my it popped out of 4WD into neutral. I spoke to a friend and he said I needed to adjust the linkage and so I did. After the adjustment my Jeep did fine for a few days and now it is making a popping sound again and it jumped into neutral again while driving at a low speed. I had to come to a stop and put the transmission into neutral and shift into 4lo before it would go into gear.

What could cause this and how big of a fix is it? I do not know the transfer case I have, but it has 3 positions, 4wd - N - 4lo.

dave1123

Okay, that's the 249 transfer case and I'd say your viscous clutch is shot. That part cost between $300 and $400 and requires total disassembly of the t/case to replace. Most guys faced with this problem choose to swap for the 242 or 231 t/case.

Check out this link; http://jeepforum.com/forum/f13/trans...-np242-685644/. It will give you all the info you'll need to make a decision.

zgetman

thank you for the response...
I am not fully convinced that it is the VC. I have read many different forums and all of them speak of a chattering when turning. I have not had this problem when turning. It is only when I am going straight. It always starts after I slow down and then it will continue as I accelerate. It is not something that happens all the time either. There are days it wont act like this at all. Does this really sound like the VC? If so I will do a 249 - 242 swap but I want to be positive.

dave1123

Well, it IS possible there is something wrong with the internal shift forks or detent checks. It may just be a broken spring behind the check ball. When you said the front shaft was removed, I instantly thought toasted VC.

zgetman

I never removed the Front Shaft... I guess the only way to know what is wrong is to crack the case and look.

Will the VC make the noise going in a straight line?

dave1123

Sorry, I guess I got you confused with someone else. No, I don't think the VC would be a problem driving straight, but if the linkage isn't locked in place by the detent check ball, it could kick out of gear.

I have the 242 t/case and sometimes when I shift back into 2WD, the shifter will pop and move backwards about 1/4". It must be that's where it's supposed to be and the cable is slightly out of adjustment. Yours is a linkage while mine is a cable. Now that I think about it, yours has a torque shaft in the linkage that has a socket on one end that sometimes comes out of it's mounting. That could be your problem.

Let me see if I can explain this; the rod from the shift lever goes to a shaft that twists. on the other end of this shaft is a rod that goes to the shift lever on the side of the t/case. There is a bearing on the end of the shaft that twists where it mounts to the frame that sometimes comes out of it's mounting. This will cause a lot of slop in the shifting.

I know, clear as mud, right?

zgetman

You are a big help in trying to figure out my problem, I just wanted you to know how thankful I am.

I am a bit confused, as you said "clear as mud..."
The only slack I have in the the shifter is side to side. Would this be a cause in the popping/grinding I am hearing. It has not popped out of gear any since the other day, although I do hear the popping/grinding sound ever so often. It mostly happens when I slow down to a stop, and then it will do a little as I accelerate from that same stop. I have not heard it making a sound at 30+ mph, gut that really doesn't mean much as I don't get above 35 mph hardly at all.

I am toying with the notion to go ahead and do a TC swap to the 242J. It sounds to be a better fit for the application I want to use the jeep for. I do not like the idea that the differential does not lock with my current TC.

dave1123

IDK about the side to side looseness. I think it shouldn't be there. I've owned 2 jeeps with the 242 t/case and neither one has/had any side-to-side motion in them. I have to push down on the shifter to go into neutral and 4lo, but that's designed in. Personally, I love the 242 and I specifically looked for them before I bought both jeeps. I heard too many horror stories about the 249. The problem was I couldn't find a V8 with the 242 so I'm stuck with the I6, which is okay in my book. I quit looking for neck-snapping performance years ago. This 4.0 will last about as long as my body does. I turn 70 this month.

zgetman

Happy Early Birthday...

I did not have a clue what I was getting into when I bought this Jeep. It is not as bad as it could be though. I have a question about the 2wd selection on the 424. will the front shaft be turning when I am in 2wd? If they do how do I stop the front drive shaft from turning?

dave1123

Yes, it will turn without power and there is no way to stop it unless you want to go to the expense of installing lock-out front hubs, and I'm not even sure it can be done on jeeps.

My '87 Chevy 4WD truck had a t/case similar to the 231 with locking front hubs. It was a real PITA to get out and lock them in every time I needed 4WD and it didn't seem to make any difference in MPG either way. It only gave me 8 mpg ever!

zgetman

I have another question about my TC problem. I was driving the other day and it start popping again, but this time it did not pop out of 4wd position. It stayed in 4wd but there was a lot of grinding coming from the transfer case and my jeep would not move. I put the selector into Neutral and it would not go back into 4wd until I put it into 4lo. I was wondering if it was the VC that is causing this or could it be something more simple like the plastic pieces on the selector fork?

dave1123

Honestly, there isn't too much to know until you eyeball the guts.

jeepxjtrails

I had a np249 that was popping every once in a while (not any more )

My u-joint let loose and blew my t case up I was doing 55 mph when it went) .

Now doing a 231 swap