I recently purchased a 97 dodge ram 1500 4×4 5.2 that ran great however it wouldn't move, I was told by the previous owner that he was driving and it kept jumping in and out of 4 wheel drive then he heard a loud bang and it wouldn't move, he was told it was the transfer case so he rebuilt it and sold me the truck without putting it back in, I got it in, filled it up with the plus 4 fluid and got nothing when I put it in gear, after trying it a few more times I could hear the engine die down like it was going into gear but it still didn't move, I unhooked the linkage and shifted through all the gears on the transfer case and then tried it again and this time it still didn't move but when I shifted it back into park I got a sound like when you're still moving and you shift a vehicle into park, I don't want to damage anything anymore than it already is and I have no clue where to go from here, does anyone have any idea what I should do next, I really don't want to have to rip the tranny out and rebuild it if I don't have to, and I'm on a very tight budget right now, I need advise

 

Did he find any obvious problems when he rebuilt the t case?

 

He said there was a seized bearing that had come apart and a crack in the case so he got another case from a same year truck that had something else wrong with it and used the two to make one good one, or at least he claims it's a good one, I don't really know what to believe now other than i should have never bought the truck in the first place, I've had many mopars in the past that were older and I've always had good luck with them but this one is driving me insane

 

Are you sure your in 2x4 or 4x4 and not in neutral? Did the transfer case spin before you put it back into the truck? And the noise is the parking paw trying to go into park. Turn the motor off before you put into park. The transmission is still spinning and nothing to stop it due to it not fully with the brakes/driveline hooked up. The noise isn't damaging anything in the transmission but don't do it to often.

 

Maybe he never fixed the transfer case. Sounds like maybe the snap ring came off the output shaft and broke the case. These transmissions don't pump fluid in park, that could be why it did nothing at first. It had to fill the torque converter once you put it in gear. You also can't check the transmission fluid in park for that reason. It needs to be in neutral. There's a check valve that prevents fluid from draining back when shut off, but they liked to plug and overheat the transmission, so it may have been removed. This will let fluid drain back when shut off and you should throw it in neutral for a minute before putting it in gear if it has sat longer than a day. I would start with examining the transfer case first.