Hello all, new member here.

I have an 86 Cherokee Pioneer, 2.1L diesel, 5-speed. Long story short, the t-case was recently replaced with a rebuilt unit. Did not go very smoothly - shop had the truck forever, I had to find the reman unit myself, then they mucked up the speedo gear and I had to take it back.

So the latest issue is I drove the truck yesterday, ran fine (although I did not attempt to shift out of 2wd), came home, and noticed this hose, connector, and bolt hanging from the undercarriage. The other end appears to be connected to the top of the t-case, although I can't confirm visually. I assume this is the vacuum hose that controls shifting into 4wd? Where does the other end connect? I assume when I find it, it will be kind of obvious because this giant bolt is supposed to anchor it in place?

Thanks,

JB

 

That looks like a vent line , maybe for the transfer case ?

 

Yeah, I see the vent and tube now in the parts manual diagram of the t-case. That seems to be where it's connected. But where does the tube connect to on the other end? Or is it just left unconnected and attached to the undercarriage somewhere with the clamp and bolt?

 

I think it bolts to the bell housing

 

I know on the 4.0l engine that goes under one of the bellhousing bolts. I'd be looking to see if you're missing any bellhousing bolts on the upper passenger side. I'd also be looking for a different shop too.

 

Yes, unfortunately, to both. That giant bolt is for the bell housing, upper passenger side. I guess I should feel fortunate that it fell out and got dragged by the vent hose, instead of falling out and never knowing it.

I certainly can't reach it to put it back in without taking a bunch of stuff apart, and I'm not really qualified to do that. Question now is whether to take it back to the original shop (which supposedly has a great reputation) and ask them to fix it right, or go someplace new and have to pay for it.

 

I suspect they just never put it back in, and it was sitting on top until it fell down. I would call the shop and ask to speak with the owner, explain the situation, and ask them to make it right. Hopefully it was just one sloppy, inattentive tech and the owner will have someone else take care of it. I'm not sure about bolt locations on the diesel, but they might have to lower the transmission support cross-member to get some long extensions and a socket on the bolt to torque it properly.

I too have had issues with a shop that had a great reputation. It was the owner's son who was the idiot in my case. Had them do a rear main gasket since my arm was in a sling. The first bad sign was him arguing that he had to pull the transmission to do it - I left him my shop manual with the instructions. It leaked worse afterwards and I took in back twice. He kept insisting it was the crankcase vent, then it had to be the head gasket - it wasn't. Two months later I redid the seal myself. The oil pan was leaking because it was missing screws and the ones that were installed were loose. No gasket and only a light smear of silicon on the pan edge. The worst part was discovering he only replaced the bottom half of the rear main seal, but not before breaking off a chunk of the block trying to hammer the upper half out with a punch. The son denied it and tried to claim the brand new seal had a black upper half and brown bottom half. The owner defended his son's work, claiming I was trying to scam them. I heard about a year later that the owner fired him.