My 98 XJ has a stretched chain in the NP231. It rubs and makes loud
noises. Good parts are hard to get here in Africa. If it takes a while to
get a good one to replace it, can I just run without a chain and front
driveshaft? I don't really need 4wd for most of my driving right now.

 

The only thing I can think of (and this may be a stretch) is that the chain helps distribute fluid in the case.

 

It looks like even the upper, (no longer spinning) bearing at the front drive shaft, is partially below the fluid level. I'm gonna say it's OK.

 

Robert (RLE), is that you?

 

Thanks for the answers. Looks like I have to make sure the case
is filled for sure if I leave out the chain. There are plenty of bumps
here to make it slosh around.

Hey Ken, none other. We're planning on coming to the States
in a few weeks and I am trying to keep the Jeep going till then.
Haven't seen you post for awhile, glad to see you're still at it.

 

Well, my shadetree guy replaced the chain with a decent used one and the
noise was still there in gears 1,2,3 (AX5). Then he took out the chain and the front
driveshaft off and drove it around. It drove OK except the noise was still there.

So today he took the AX5 apart and found four broken teeth on the input gear.
Maybe it'll be back together tomorrow and we'll try it, but we'll put the chain
back in. The end of that experiment.

I'll admit I thought it was the transfer case because we tried putting
the TC in Neutral and running through all five gears. No noise, but there
was no load ever on the input gear just sitting there like that so even the
broken gear meshed OK. But on the road under load, the gears wouldn't
mesh and the noise was there. So I learned something.

 

Got the Jeep back today and it drives smooth, no more real bad noises.
The only piece that he found to be bad was the transmission input gear.
He said the gear it meshes with is OK.

My e-brake has been a problem for several years now so I have often
parked it in first gear or sometimes reverse. That may have caused
some extra strain on the gear. I switched to ZJ rear disc brakes a year
ago hoping that would solve the problem but still, every month or so,
the parking brake loosens back up, and has to be tightened up again.
So I need to solve that so I don't go through this again.

Axiom: The Jeep's systems are made to work together. When one thing
fails or is in poor repair, it probably puts undue strain on something else
and may cause it to fail.

 

Was the loud noise you were experiencing only while in 4low or 4 hi? I’m having a noise issue when under a load but only when in 4 low or 4 hi. I just purchased my XJ yesterday and trying to get her whipped back into shape.