I'm trying to remove the front output housing from my 03 D2 transfer case to install a cdl. I removed the housing itself, but I can't get the gears out to save my life. I have no idea what's holding them in. There's no interlock solenoid, and I have the transmission in neutral. What the heck is keeping these gears from coming out?!

 

My answer is .......... Abran Abeyta, he has done this no doubt more than once, PM Abran he's a decent sort of guy and very helpful.

 

What is the answer? I see this problem mentioned more than once and no follow up on the solution. Others say only took a few hours and done.

 

The short answer, as it turns out, is that you have to muscle the hell out of it to overcome the force of the high/low detent.

Here's the long answer, though, and a much more important one. Having removed the old gears, I can't see any reason they needed to be removed in the first place. There's no difference I can see between the locking and non-locking gears. The entire locking mechanism is built into the front end of the output housing itself. I wish I had never removed the gears, because the high/low detent ball disappeared and now I can't shift the TC into high gear. I think I'll have to remove the entire t-case now to access the detent plug. All the work I did yesterday was for nothing. I'm honestly so pissed about it that I'm ready to sell the damn thing.

 

2003CDLInstall - LAND ROVER CLUB V.I.

 

Dang! But Interesting, can you explain a little more? I think every thing I’ve read I was understood same as what you did.

 

​​​​Every guide I've read on how to replace the front output housing has said that you also had to replace the differential and high/low gear and clutch assembly as part of the operation. Well, I got mine out and it looked identical to the replacement. Upon further investigation, the entire locking mechanism is retained within the housing itself, and the differential and clutch assembly is exactly the same between locking and non-locking transfer cases. Removing the differential also causes the high/low detent to fall out, and I cannot see how it's humanly possible to replace it without removing the entire transfer case from the truck. I'm beyond mad about it - mad at the creator of the instructions I followed, and mad at myself for not figuring it out beforehand studying the RAVE manual.

 

These are the instructions I followed. In case anybody else is thinking about doing this: YOU DO NOT NEED TO REMOVE THE GEARS FROM YOUR T-CASE. I have an undrivable truck now because I followed these instructions and removed the gears when I didn't actually need to. Now I'll have to drop the entire t-case to fix it, which is what I was trying to do to avoid in the first place. There are several other things you don't need to remove that these instructions call for: the exhaust Y-pipe, the frame cross members, and the front output flange. Of course, I'll need to remove all of those things now just so I can replace that stupid little high/low ball bearing detent.

 

Any one else that has done this have any additional comment? Changing the housing sounds and looks a lot easier than my approach which was to change the whole transfer case. Advice is welcome

 

Bump????? Anyone have more insight to this?