Background, truck is entirely stock, no mods no upgrades. Trans was rebuilt at one point, truck now has 155k on it. 96 single cab 4x4 auto. Background on what happened... I was driving on the highway and heard grinding noises intermittently, figured I lost vacuum to the 4wd and it was trying to engage. Came rolling up to the first stop light into town and decided to put it in 4hi to get it to stop (pavement was wet) as soon as I did something started grinding, put the truck into nuetral and it stopped but lost all gears when I went back to drive/1/2/revers. 10 mins dead in the middle of the road after shiftING the transmission and transfer case I got it somehow back into drive. Truck will no longer go faster than 35mph. I replaced the 2 solnoids in the trans, new fluid, no fix. There was some metal in the drain pan. In drive the truck shifts from 1-2 and u can't really feel 3rd and 4th. Manually shifting from 1-2-D you can feel all 4 gears shift fine but still won't go over 35, truck high revs but with no slipping. From park to Rev or drive it drops in hard and the truck wants to jump, from drive to park with no hesitation in nuetral it will grind going into park. 4wd vacuum is good at 25 and diaphram is working correctly. So I'm thinking the Tranny is toast but wanted a few opinions before I replaced.

 

You have the t-case in 4 lo?

 

Not that I can tell, I put the truck on stands and engaged 4hi / low and 2h everything seemed to work as normal. Front drive shaft is not spinning while in 2h so I'm thinking nothing 4wd is engaged. Although I don't see much difference between 4hi and low...feels the same

 

Should be quite a bit of difference. Disconnect the shift linkage from the t-case, and move the lever down there manually, does it feel like its doing anything?

 

I'll give that a try Saturday, working out of town. Is it possible that the tcase is stuck in 4low and is effecting the output to the rear driveshaft while still not turning the front driveshaft?

 

Sure is.

 

Well hot damn hopefully that's my problem. I'll definitely update on sat.

 

Well hot damn hopefully that's my problem. I'll definitely update on sat. Any thoughts on what I should expect when I disconnect? Turns left, turns right, doesn't turn at all, what position 2h 4h n 4l should be?

 

That you'll have to puzzle out by looking a the linkage, and how things are hooked up. Having someone else in the truck to wiggle the lever while you are underneath observing, makes life MUCH easier.

 

Took a look at the tcase linkage, everything was tight and in working order. Put the truck back up on stands, while in drive, shifted the transfer case from 2 to 4 to n to 4l and back. Everything operated engaged and disengaged as normal. 1st gear the truck on the speedo goes around 10mph, 2nd gear 15-20, drive still 35 max. Put the truck back on the ground drove it up and down the driveway, tons of torque and no slipping...only 35mph. No codes on the engine light flash.