The 205 was basically indestructible in any event.

 

I know this

 

Snap ring was not the problem. The snap ring that was installed on the tail shaft was standard style that uses a medium size snap ring pliers. Not the duck bill style. Someone must have changed it previous . I pulled the transfer case out tonight but have yet to tear it down. I will keep you posted what I find.. I did order the Gillys case saver and will install it when I am going back together to eliminate a future problem.

 

I have taken the transfercase apart. I expected to find obvious damage. I found a couple of things but nothing that really stood out as root cause. I found input shaft teeth to be worn on the edge where the range slider would engage directly into the input shaft. I do not know if this wear is the cause of the grinding or the slider jumping out of the teeth or if the wear is the cause of the slider sliding out of gear. When I move the lever it engages completely into the input shaft. The shift fork that holds the range slider is worn but I attibute this to having to hold pressure on the shifter in order to get it home.

The other thing I found was the snap ring that holds the syncro teeth in place on the 4 wheel drive mode slider to have come out and been ground up by the chain. Lots of broken snap ring pieces on the magnet in the bottom. 1 of the shift keys fell out but it was undamaged at the bottom of the case.

I do not really see how this snap ring or shift keys would cause it to jump out of high range into neutral. The snap ring does not hold any end play in any of the shafts or gears. It simply holds the shift keys in place. Ironically I have not had any problems with it popping out of 4 wheel drive.

 

Update. I have replaced the input shaft, the range slider, and the range shift fork. Uppon further inspection, I did find that the dowel on the range shift fork was damaged and it is cracked where it goes into the fork. Is this allowing enough movement for it to pop out of gear? It is back together now and I will be reinstalling it tomorrow night.

 

Congrats on getting it back together. Let us know if your problems go away. When i took mine apart the same things had happened with the syncro retainer snap ring, except it was still in one piece. I poppopped it back in and it hasnt given me any issues yet.

 

Reinstalled it tonight. I didnt get a chance to drive it but I did let the clutch out while holding the brake. The rear wheels started turning doing a burnout in the dirt and it never jumped out of high range. Tomorrow I will be test driving it and hope all holds up. Thanks for all the info on here.

 

Road tested it tonight. Transfercase works perfect. Only problems I found are the vacuum switch does not seem to be working and even if it was my vacuum actuator diaphragm on the front axle was smashed causing it to jam in 4 wheel drive. Over all eveytime I fix something on this truck, something else pops up.

 

+1 on that.

 

The trick is to keep fixing things until something breaks you don't care about. Then, DON'T fix it...... end of problem.