Originally Posted by Dodge4lyfe

I was going to put new seals in whatever one i was going to find...My transfer case is grinding and making noise and I think one of the forks may be bent...but my input shaft should be good so i may still go this route...

Originally Posted by LO 619

If you do would be cool if you could do a step by step tutorial. Good luck!

Originally Posted by 95_318SLT

So here is the procedure on how to swap the input shafts. The pictures are of the 231 coming apart, the 242 has slightly different internals, but the same procedure works...

1) Remove the tail shaft housing. There are 3 bolts holding it on, and then hit it with a rubber mallet until it breaks loose.



2) Next, to get the rear bearing retainer off, remove the retaining clip and speed sensor. Then remove the 4 bolts and beat it with a rubber mallet until it slides off.













3) Next, remove the rear cover. There are 3 bolts that are different than the rest. VERY IMPORTANT...MARK WHERE THEY GO!!! The two bolts with the washers are for the guide pins, and right around those there are slots to slide a pry bar under to pry the cover off once unbolted. There is no need to beat it with a rubber mallet.





Once unbolted slide the rear cover off.

4) With the rear cover off, pull the mainshaft and shift rail up and once they are unseated and there is slack in the chain, take the chain off. The pins on the shift fork slide right out of the guide plate on the 231, but require some extra motivation on the 242. (Sorry, I didn't get pictures of this). It should now look like this...



The circled part is high/low range planatary gear assembly. The input shaft is in this.

5) Unbolt the front bearing retainer. There are also prybar slots on this peice, just look around the edge tolocate them.





6) Remove the retaining clip.



With this clip removed, the planatary gear assembly will slide out the back. It should look like this:



7) Remove this retaining clip from the planatary assembly.



The input shaft should slide out.

Here are the input shafts side by side...



Assembly is reverse. Be sure to clean all gasket surfaces and use a 1/8" to 1/4" bead of black or red RTV gasket maker on the rear cover, both bearing retainers, and tailshaft housing. Also make sure the retaining clips didn't get stretched on removal and are seated properly. (One of my clips got messed up). One thing to note, the older transfer cases use a wider input shaft bearing, and I had to put my 231 bearing in the 242 for the 231 input shaft to fit.

Originally Posted by Az93DKota

Thanks 95. You just helped me find the leak in my ZJ. That's where the seal goes.