Chewed into little bitty bits no doubt.

Was the snap ring still on the rear output shaft?

 

Yes it was

 

Hhhhmmm.....

If you don't find anything obvious in there...... clean everything up good, replace the stuff you want to, and put it back together. see if the problem is gone. If not, maybe it's not really the t-case making the racket?? have you pull the cover off the front diff?

 

Op I know where you can get a NV271D, but shipping will be a bitch $$$.

 

Yes I have. Ring and pinion are clean no shavings. I know it's not the actuator fork either. It's done it with 2 actuators. I rly wish I took a video of the sound. I put the front end into a snow bank to test it and everything spins good but then the front stops spinning, driveshaft stops then BANG!!! Then everything spins again and repeat. It's random too. Best way to describe it is its binding from the tcase end of the drifeshaft. But tcase is clean and front diff is clean as well. Same with ujoints and cardin joint. With the sound it makes you would assume the tcase is mangled inside but it's not.. Maybe the shift fork is slipping one of the gears because of the worn out and missing plastic caps? But again, no shavings, no sign of wear. I'm out of ideas.

I'm heading down to Toronto this weekend and there's about 15 wrecking yards between here and there.. If I found a 241d what specs would I need? 1998 to match my truck or is there a range and only a 2500v8 right? Are there different splines or anything? What's a decent price?

 

Diesel will be a 241hd. I think if it was an auto it would still have the same spline count?

Manuals have different spline counts.

Either way all that is needed to swap from wrong spline would be a input shaft. Apparently, i have not done it myself.

Try to find the 2500 v8s. Nobody cares about though lol. But it will be a LD and not a HD. Both are strong but the hd has lower gears i "think"

 

One wrecking yard wants $750 for a 241 lol.

 

241 out of any 98 and up gas truck (but, not V-10) should work. There are 241D, and 241DHD, kinda random which trucks got which case. My truck has the DHD..... It's a slightly larger case, so, you *may* have some issues with driveshaft length, and the mount for the front d/s may be different at the t-case.... not sure on that.

That said, did you happen to verify your gear ratios while you were in your diffs? It almost sounds like you have two different ratios there...... that will most certainly cause some interesting issues.

 

I've swapped to 4.56 but yeah that's another thing I'm going to check. There could have been a mix up when I ordered them. But wouldn't different ratios make noise from the beginning? It was fine for 6 months after ring and pinion installation and I used 4x4 quite frequently. And wouldn't that destroy the front ring and pinion?

EDIT: Just talked to a guy that rebuilds and sells dodge transfer cases and I called him about a 241. Anyways, he doesn't think it's my transfer case. He told me he's seen cases like mine where it's not the front diff, transfer case and its actually the driveshaft. Told me to check the sliding spline in the front shaft. He's seen them seize up. Nice of him I thought. Is that something I should consider? Never heard of it before.

 

So it's not the sliding spline. I don't know, I guess I'll put it back together and see what happens.