Hey everyone, I’ve seen a lot of threads relating to this issue but none have really gone over my problem. I’m not entirely sure what transfer case I have but the shifting order from top down is 2H, 4H, N, 4L. A little while back I was trying to climb a pretty steep hill and almost made it in 2H but I stopped about 50ft from flat ground and tried to shift into 4H. When I let the clutch out to continue this horrible grinding noise came from the transfer case. I disengaged and backed down the hill and once on the main road I tried to engage 4H again on flat level surface but it was still grinding. I have no problem with 2H driving. I feel to mention that I have a 4.5” lift with 33” Ko2’s and a 1.5” transfer case drop with a manual trans. It has just snowed about 7 inches here in the northeast and I was unable to leave my driveway in 2H and even then I tried 4H hoping that it wouldn’t grind but it did. So I took another vehicle that got out on the 2nd try with 4L and I left the Jeep behind. I’ve seen posts related stuff to fluid level, linkage, and even the possibility that the transfer case is junk. And this isn’t just a slight grinding to add. This is like someone tried driving a manual for the first time grinding and it’s so loud. And since the last trip to the power lines I now have an issue with reverse where it sounds like a heat shield is zip tied to my driveshaft.

 

Sounds like you need to open it up to see what happened or just change it and then open it up to check it out.

 

Before you go too nuts replacing or rebuilding it adjust the linkage and try again.