When I try to put it in, I hear a grinding noise and kind of slipping at the same time. I know I'm putting it in right, it just won't engage.

 

Well this morning I crawled under the jeep and found that t-case has a crack, but now ever since I tried to put in 4 wheel drive, it makes a clanking noise when just driving in 2H and it gets louder when I go faster. It was doing fine in 2H before I tried to engage the 4x4. My question is how difficult will it be to change the t-case out, and why the noise when just driving in 2H, can if the t-case is crack? Please Help. Thanks

 

t-case is very easy to remove. just 6 or so nuts/bolts. they are studs with nuts, so some studs may come out and some nuts leaving the stud in. but no worries, you can get to that after.

just be sure to support the tranny so when you remove the crossmember, it won't stress out your motor mounts, tearing them apart.

but be warned, the t-case is pretty fricken heavy, keep your face clear of the landing path in case it slips on ya.

the top 2 nuts are tight, and you may want a short stubby wrench to get those. they're very tight, and can only move in very small increments. i would try to do those first.
i think they are 9/16s.

and lastly, make sure you get a matching t-case, as i believe they are a different spline count than the early years.

 

Is that on the bottom?

I would stop driving it, if you have a different vehicle. Your Tcase pry has no fluid in it and is running dry, this will kill the bearings, gears, and pretty much everything else in the case.

I see tcases go for ~100 bucks on craigslist around here. Just make sure the spline counts match.
Maybe you could swap in a NP242, if your into that kind of thing (full time 4wd option)

 

Ya that's the bottom of it, I'm going to try to look for one on Craigslist right now