I just recently bought a 2006 3.7 Grand Cherokee. 210,000 miles. Body in good shape. I fixed the overheating radiator. The transfer case has chain slip and I found a junkyard transfer case with 130000 miles for 200 bucks. When I got it, I am very suspect as it does not feel right. If feels like there is no solid connection between the input shaft and output shaft to the rear drive line. It also slips from the input to the front drive line output. I am still working on getting the old one out of the car so I can't compare the two directly. So did get a bad part? BTW, it has no fluid in it.

 

Not super familiar with that transfer case but it's certainly possible you got a bad part. Could be the reason it's in the junk yard and they thought it was the whole tranny.

Hopefully someone with a little more knowledge will let you know more info.

 

wkjeeps.com has a complete breakdown of the NP146 from the SRT8, but not much about the NP140.

 

I had seen that. Very nice document because the 146 is driven by an electric clutch you know there is much different breakdown inside I suspect. Once I get the old one out and see what's going on, I will pass this information back to the group.

 

I finally got my transfer case out of the jeep it was not easy. And of course non of the manuals tell you the stuff to make it easy.
1) support tranmission
2) remove cross brace
3) remove front shaft, tie up
4) remove rear shaft from diff
5) remove rear shaft from transfer case (more like beat the crap out of it)
6) remove transmission mount from transmission
7) remove exhaust mount from transmission
8) lower transmission about two inches to allow top access on the transfer case bolts
9) remove all bolts
10) remove transfer case

What I learned when I got the transfer case off it disengaged from both drive shafts.

 

OK, I can finally finish this thread! YEAH And what it took to get it back on.

So when I got my hold transfer case off, it behaved just like the junk yard one. So there is a mechanism that engages an internal clutch. You can see by this picture from the transmission there is a rod that slides into the transfer case input side that engages the clutch.
2006 jeep transmission interface to NP146 transfer case
So I was not able to test it as the the pressure required was greater than my puny hands could produce.

The hardest part about bolting the transfer case was this stupid bracket hanger for the exhaust. ARRRGGHHH. This too about 20 minutes for this one bolt as there was no space for my huge manly hands.
exhaust hanger on transfer case
It took about an other two hours for me to finish the job after that. Before the new-old case went into the car, I took a wire brush on a drill to make it shiny.
Input and front output side
rear output side. Yeah