I've tried all 4 options. High, low, locked, unlocked... nada.

Only when both wheels of the same axle are in the air do I get any forward wheel spin.

 

Err.. Just throwing stuff out but it sounds like you may have broken something in the tcase. I only say this because you have reverse and no forward. Your driveshaft and wheels turn slowly with a lot of throttle due to rotational drag. Reverse moves the gears in such a way that it transfers torque. Essentially you need to drain the tcase and see if you find metal in the fluid. Like a lot. I would say a band in the trans but it seems too coincidental that this happened the same time you started messing with your cdl linkage.

 

Another reason I think it's in your tcase.. You said the front dropped when it popped.. If the drive line was binding as you were turning due to the front turning at a different rate the rear and the cdl was locked (wether you knew it or not) it would actually cause the front of the truck to raise up gradually as it binded.. Then when what ever snapped it released the bind and allowedthe suspension to come back to rest which is the drop you felt. Never never lock a tcase or axle on concrete. Always on loose dirt. My thoughts are that it never unlocked, bound up on the u-turn and something in the tcase let go.

 

Drain the t-case and then remove the inspection plate.

 

I agree, try pulling your front driveshaft and turning it by hand, hard, both ways

I bet it won't feel/sound right

(in park, e-brake on)


luck,greg

 

One question that I did not see asked. Did the CDL Lock light on the dash ever come on? If you have never seen it you might not recognize it. It is a little pictoral of the the two axles, looks kind of like a capital H. It does not come on at start-up like most of the other dash lights do. It is suppose to illuminate when diff is locked.

I had diff lock issues initially, the shifter would not move until I tore it all apart, greased it good and put it back together. Diff still would not lock until I replaced the CDL switch up front on the top side of transfer case, just to the left of the CDL shift pivot mechanisn that ****s from unlock to lock. With new switch, diff locks and light comes on.

Aren't these things fun to work on?

 

Well i retract my previous statement, which now seems to be totally wrong. My bad.

 

Yes the CDL icon light came on when I locked it. when I unlocked it the light would go on & off randomly like there was a bad switch activating the light. I figured there was a problem with the switch turning on the light, since the lever was in the correct position.

I hope it's the t-case, there's a bunch of them in the salvage yards, & they are affordable. Maybe I can even get one sealed up so it doesn't leak!

 

The only problem I have is that is still works in reverse. It theoretically shouldn't. I would do as suggested and pull the inspection plate. If you don't see any shavings or chunks of metal, I would be leery of an x-fer case failure. Just sounds weird.

 

I've drained the fluid & there's no shavings, but the oil is so sparkly it looks like metallic paint. It's only been in the case for about 36 hours, since I changed it. Still working on the rest of it.