hey all, was looking underneath my jeep the other day and noticed that the transfer case seemed to be leaking a bit, don't really have any experience working on t-cases and wondered if anyone might have an idea what was causing the leak and how difficult it was to fix?

I'll be installing a 6.5 inch lift soon, (and yes I have a driveshaft and sye ordered) my friends grandfather has a transfer case he would sell me, think I would be better off just spending the extra money and getting the new one since I'll have to tear the old one out anyways or trying to fix the old one?

 

is it the same transfer case? there are some differences in the transmission output depending on the year iirc. someone correct me if I'm wrong. if they're the same, you could always do it, but since you'll be installing a SYE why not replace the seals at the same time? get a rebuild kit and go at it, you'll have a brand new TC.

 

Yeah he says its off a 2001 and mines a 2000 so it should be the same! Any idea how much a rebuild kit would cost me?

 

It's either a NP231 or a NP242, but not depending on year. Part time 4WD is the 231, full time is the 242. Where is the leak? We can't really give you any fixes until we know that.

 

This is it, top half is totally dry

 

It's a 231 by the way

 

A little dark but this is from the back

Just the bottom half the whole way across

 

My approach has been and will be.........


If you get it for $75 or so, get it.

Now you have time to put it on the bench and go through it, clean it, new seals....etc.......

Bag it have have it ready.

I prefer to do things like that ahead of time rather than rush it all later.

 

It looks like your front output shaft seal is shot, but it's also pretty spread out. The fluid on back of the case is really what's throwing me for a loop. If you have any interest at all in saving this case, which honestly is probably fine besides the leak, I would clean off the case and give it a quick test drive to warm up the fluid. Hitting it with a powerwasher (only if you have one handy) and some degreaser will make the leak a lot easier to track down. It's probably the output shaft though, since there's not much else around it to cause a similar leak. I agree with JeepDriver that it's easier to refurbish one on the bench, but quite honestly yours probably will only need the SYE and any seal on the case is pretty simple to replace. Just like JeepDriver said, if you can get it really cheap, it might not be a bad option. Rebuild kits are nice but not necessary at all, so I wouldn't be actively trying to get this case. These are very stout little t-cases that only struggle at really high mileage or with a lot of torque.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, think what I'm gonna do is go ahead and buy one, a local junkyard has a TON of them too, and once I have the old one out fix it up and save it in case something ever happens to the new one, kinda worth it to me to save some time and headaches on a project that's probably already gonna take an entire weekend