Hi everyone,

Just got done with replacing the fluid in my diffs and transfer case, refilled with 85W/140. Diff fluid and plugs looked clean, but the transfer case is a different story.

The fluid came out very dark in color and this is what the drain plug looked like:

Transfer case drain plug

A sample of some of the pieces:


No clue when the last time it was drained was, vehicle has 115k miles on it today, I've had it for a little over a year now. Wish I had done this sooner.
Should I start looking for a replacement? Or would this be a normal amount of metal to find after who knows how long?

 

Looks kind of chunky. Are those tiny pieces stuck together?

 

I would not worry about it.

Drive it and see what happens.

If it is screwed you will feel and hear it.

You won't be doing any damage to other parts and much easier to find a replacement used on vs. rebuilding that one.

 

On the towel those are all separate pieces. Some large copper pieces towards the top of the pic, smaller pieces in the middle and large chunks towards the bottom.

I do plan on continuing to drive it, not much of a choice there. Just want to get ahead of any issues if it's likely it's on its way out.
Noticed a whine coming from somewhere a week or so ago which is what made me start thinking about changing fluids. Still need to do the transmission though, not sure what state it might be in.
I drove it a bit last night and still heard the whine, possibly less pronounced than before, need to drive it a bit more to tell for sure and maybe let the new oil work its way in everywhere.