It seems more intimidating than it is. 318 has a good post on disassembling the transfer case. Just follow that and it will walk you through. Take your time and make sure you remember where everything goes. Its not a long job, but one that will take some time if its your first. Dismounting the tcase is a little tricky, but not hard. Same with the disassembly and reassembly.

Make sure you have a decent pair of snap ring pliars. That will make your life MUCH easier. Or you can be cheap like me and bust your knuckles with a pair of needle nose.

Just take it one step at a time. Youll be done before ya know it.

 

+1 to that!!! Get a pair of snap ring pliers or you'll be swearing a lot! I spent longer fighting with one snap ring than it took me to drive to the store and buy the pliers after I gave up on it. Got home and it took 5 seconds.

 

I'm going to look at the guide, thanks again.

 

I have a few more questions about this before I do it.

When I replace the RTV gasket do I have to remove any of the components from the inside? Can I take it apart one section at a time? meaning can I remove the first split, replace gasket maker, rebolt, then move on to the next section?... The guide that 318 posted, it that the procedure, isn't it a different t-case, How many rtv gaskets will need to be replaced?

 

Fellow readers correct me of I wrong or something is different. This is based on removal of a transfer case in a 93 dakota 3.9L v-6 5sp sport

With the help of 318 and others here and there I had to replace my clutch in my 93 dakota. Make a long story short just about everything had to removed or moved out of the way to get my job done. One of witch was removing the T-case. With removing and "rebuilding it" (replacing all the seals) here is some help for you.

This is for my truck and i dont think theres much change to yours.

1. On the back of the front drive shaft there it bolts to the t-case there are 2 bolts one higher than the other. (they face rear of truck). have and oil pan ready and take the bottom bolt out (mine uses 1 1/4 inch wrench or socket, i prefer socket). That will drain the ATF fluid in it. (helps prevent spilling on your self later on, and is needed for seal replacement.

2. Unbolt the rear drive shaft at the rear axle (4 bolts, 2 straps). To free it just push or pull towards t-case. Watch out though so the U-joint doesn't come apart. Once free use duck tape or something like it and take around the joint covering all 4 points of the joint. (keeps them from coming off or loosing them for some reason). Carefully pull the rear drive shaft from t-case and set aside.

3. Same concept for the front axle but unbolt it from the t-case. (my truck there 5/16 if i remember right) Save your self the time and use a socket, wrench will end up rounding them off. You will see/notice that there is a metal ring thats getting in your way of a socket and swivel joint. Tap that away from bolts (towards t-case) and tap here and there all they way around it. Then go after the bolts. Watch out though. The shaft my pull away from the t-case. When its bolted in place (atleast for me) the front drive shaft felt like it was stretched into place. If you feel the need to remove the other end of the front shaft do so.

4. Starting the removal of t-case. If manual remove all the trim around the sifter in the cab. Not sure about auto. you can leave the gear shifter for the tranny in place. If manual and you plain on doing a fuild change in tranny you can remove shifter(cover hole with rag) at that point(makes easy fill point).

4a. Diconnect the shift linkage somewhere between the bottum of the shift arm and t-case ( i unbolted the hole braket that the shifter mounted to but left it connected to t-case, it more of a pain but i also had to take tranny out to)
4b. unbolt t-case from tranny. If they are the same you should find 6 nuts (9/16 wrench). Leave a nut or 2 on but not tight.
4c. Disconnect and wireing/sensors or the important speedometer cable from t-case before removing. (My truck is fuel injected and theres 2 sensors and the speedometer on the t-case. Then remove the nuts you left on and a little wiggle and it should come loose. Once this far i slid my t-case and set it on the next crossmember and supported it with a jack stand so it wouldn't fall out until i removed it from under the truck. Just a heads up the t-case is heavy, at least 40+ pounds. Its recommened to use a jack to lower it out. I man handled it. Laying on a creeper i pulled it from the crossmember layed it on my check and slid it to the floor and draged it out.

Once you have read this and then gone and done it and its over with if and when the second time comes to do it. It will probably take you as long to read this then to get it out again. It looks like alot do to but in reality no more than id say 30 minutes and you should have it out.

As for taking apart the t-case, i have never done it and good luck. 318 has takin them apart before so he might the go to guy for help.

 

Your post was really informative. Now I have a picture in my head to get it out. I get paid on monday and I should have enough to at least buy some of the parts I need. I was thinking of taking the tranny out when I do the t-case too because I also need to do the throwout bearing. lol nearly everything needs to be replaced on this truck man.

 

if you pull the tranny find my post about clutch kit in a 93 dakota. looking back at what I had to do to get my tranny out it looked like a lot of work but it wasn't. just takes a lot of time. theres not much to it.

 

Well, do I have to take the tranny out to replace the throwout bearing? If I do I'll check it out.

 

Yes. The throwout bearing is within the bellhousing... no way to get to it with the transmission in the truck. If it were me, I'd throw a clutch, pressure and pilot bearing in while you're at it, and resurface the flywheel. There's no reason to pull the transmission just to put in a throwout bearing cause the clutch probably isn't far behind it, and you probably don't want to do the job twice.

Just out of curiosity, what type of driver are you? Throwout bearings usually go out prematurely when drivers sit at traffic lights with the clutch pedal depressed, and when they rest the vehicle on a hill on the clutch and not the brakes. If you do either of those things, you should get out of that habit. Only push the clutch pedal in when you absolutely need to.

 

I'm a new driver, this is my first vehicle, no, I do not rest my foot on the clutch while driving, or sitting at lights. I use the parking break on hills.

The truck has been driven no more than 200 miles since I bought it