Took off the diff. Cover and found nothing that resembles a clip. Also tugged on the drive shaft and oh boy does that move! Coming out of the transfer case it moves about 3/8 of an inch! Whats up with that?

Oh, and diff. Fluid smells like the most potent cow manure in the world

 

i cannot figure out how to post a video here, so here is a link to the vid that shows the drive shaft movement:

http://s98.photobucket.com/user/alpi...92c1c.mp4.html

 

time to change the fluid and that will be a good amount of work to change the bearing inside the transmission/transfercase that attached to the Driveshaft...

I can't for the life of me remember the name of that bearing... it's right in the front of my mind...

 

Internals of the Diff look to be in decent shape... if the fluid smells that bad it likely hasn't been changed in a LONGGGGG time.

 

where are these clips everyone has problems with, and the clutches? all i see is gears

 

You're Rear Diff doesn't have the clutch retaining clips so you're okay, your Rear Diff. looks to be in good shape.

The problem is that Driveshaft Movement, that is really bad bro, you really need to fix that, and I am 90% sure all of your other problems will go away.

You are gonna have to open the transfer case and take a look at the yoke in there... I can't tell you exactly what you will find but it should be pretty obvious what the problem is once you get it opened up.

 

I took a look through the service manual and saw that the drive shaft is mounted on splines, which would allow front to back movement. is there a clip that holds it in place? The manual seem so limited in information and really confusing. I am used to looking at motorcycle manuals and those are spelled out very clearly. But right now I am off to get my multifunction switch replaced only 21 miles short of max for that warranty LOL.

 

The driveshaft should just have a splined yoke that slides into the rear of the transfer case onto the splined output shaft. There shouldn't be any movement with the driveshaft still hooked to the rear differential.
When you are moving the driveshaft like you did in the video, what is moving on the other end? Does it have a slip shaft carrier bearing half way back on the driveshaft or is it a one piece driveshaft back to the rearend?

 

it does have the carrier in the middle between two drive shafts