My case lever didnt have alot of side to side but it would move front and back on acceleration and under hard braking.. Cruising at the speed I could hear and feel the vibration I could reach down and feel it in the t-case shift lever.

On second thought it mainly did go crazy under hard braking.. I remember having to make a very abrupt stop one night and my glasses that were on the lever got thrown off..

That's what happened to mine. Broke it right in half.



Merc I look forward to hearing your theory.

Man I am most likely so far off, I wish I knew more about auto trannys (just this once anyways).

I missed this...... this is starting to make sense again. Its not the t case, the t case joint to the trany is the weak spot and that's were they break/fail. As for why I am still working on that.

Hmm.. Idk if you saw my last failure but it ripped off the back of the trans.. Who knows.. look forward to seeing what you come up with

This thread has surfaced rather timely for me, I feel.

I recently noticed a faint whining noise that coincides with ground speed... sometimes there, sometimes not... sounds like an axle whine from 20-30mph, though a little higher pitched... by ~60mph it sounds more like a gearbox "singing"... it does seem to emanate from mid vehicle... I don't have any clunking on down shift, or erratic shift lever movement... all runs smooth.

I recently had the transmission out to change the clutch, and this noise started maybe 1000 miles later (I'm at 152k)... so I'm guessing during the removal the tail-shaft the output shaft was bumped and unseated the circlip.

I've ordered a TC Saver kit already... I'll report back after install to let you know if the noise has gone.

When the snap ring fails, it allows the mainshaft to walk forward at will, when it walks forward, the dogs move forward into the shift collar and the front output is engaged, this creates a shock load in Rams because it isn't a live front axle that spins all the time. This shock load could certainly cause this failure.

My Dakota has (had, actually) a live front axle, so both times I lost the snap ring, it didn't hurt anything because the front axle/driveshaft was already spinning.

Now yall got me worried...thinkin i need to track down and keep a few t-cases on hand...any aftermarket upgrades to the tranny that'll take this problem outa the picture?

Transfer Case saver. 'bout half way down the page.

Picked mine up here;
drivetrain.com