Hey so I've known about the dangers of towing an awd vehicle on the drive wheels for some time now but my dumbass thought it would be ok if I put the transfer case in neutral first. Now the TC will only go into low range and when I put it in drive it whines and smokes. I guess my question is does the transfer case share fluids with the transmission on these trucks? If not is it possible that only my transfer case is ****ed and not the trans as well? If they do share fluids would the whole system be fried? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

First, buy yourself an owners handbook and read it, they are cheap!

The trans and LT230 don't share the same oils, one is ATF and the other is 75-90.

It's hard to tell you what damage has been done but never tow a 4x4 above 30mph and then only a few yards.

 

Okay so I know the transfer case got fried but if they dont share fluids then is it even possible that the transmission got heated too if the TC was in neutral?

 

I'm no expert, but I would guess that your trans is fine. Being in neutral may have saved it. Someone more experienced than me can chime in if I'm wrong. You probably burned up the differential in the tc. The diff has no bearings; only surface to surface for differential movement, not constant highway movement. It sux that you put yourself in this predicament but, I would say swap in a good tc (or rebuild yours) and see if all good. If not, you know what you have to do next. If you would've removed the rear driveshaft, you'd be ok.

 

Ok big thanks you to both of you guys.

 

I didn't know any of this, so thanks for posting. I'm learning!

 

Yep when I rolled my 97 D1 back in the day the stupid tow truck driver wouldn’t listen to me about how he was recovering it (2 wheels on his flatbed & 2 wheels off...). He made it maybe 10ft when it started to drag it’s rear wheels & then it made the most disgusting BOOM/POP you could imagine & then it rolled onto the truck. Yes it had rolled over, but I was going to buy it back for parts. After the TC exploded and probably a half shaft = I just got my personal stuff out and called it.

Never ever tow a LR/AWD vehicle with 2 on/2 off the ground. Remove a drive shaft & save yourself a lot of work & $$$$.

 

Where are you at? I've got a good transfer case out of an 03 just taking up space. I removed it when I added a CDL to mine.

If you're local you can have it free. If you're not you can still have it for the price of freight.