Broken Transfer Case and/or Center Diff (?)

First off, it's not a VR-4, but a GS-X... but I digress.

There has been clicking under sharp turning for a while now (since I got the car) and then last week I got a little too excited in a very large gravel parking lot. One particular low-traction slide ended on the high-traction tarmac and I drove off grinning. The car doesn't really like to break loose in anything but the snow, but when it does... oh boy, so much fun.

Anyways, the car was fine, drove it around, no change. I was getting on the highway last night and I felt a *clunk* and then a shift in weight distribution. I thought I maybe ran over a large rock, and since nothing really seemed to have changed, kept driving. Once I got off the freeway and put it into 1st I realized that something was wrong. Any power at all elicited a quite horrible clunking noise from the front right side of the car.

I'm fairly positive it's the axle, and I'm in the process of removing it. My questions are:

1.) Know any tricks for breaking the lower control arm off of the knuckle/hub?
2.) If you've only got jack stands and don't have a lot of room to get a good size prybar in between the tranny and the axle, what is a good trick you guys have for removing the axle from the transmission?

Thanks a lot you guys.

-Gary

(PS: The car has 286,000 miles on the ORIGINAL un-opened 4G63... I really do love this car...)

 

[DR1665]

Welcome, Gary.

I don't recall ever separating the control arm from the hub to swap an axle. Pretty sure you can unbolt the strut down there, allowing enough slack to get things free. As for getting in there with a pry bar while JSB (jack stand baller, it's a club), you can try larger slotted screwdrivers or Harbor Freight has a nice 3-piece set of pry bars with handles. It's like $20 or so and they come in handy more often than you'd think. In any case, make sure you have a catch pan for any transmission fluid that spills when you free the axle (might be a good time to replace the fluid, hint-hint), and be careful with the pry bar. It can suck pretty bad when a pry bar slips off the axle.

 

Thanks a lot,

Yeah, I think I'll just have to borrow a small prybar from my friends if I can get a hold of one of them... just looking for a way to get it all done NOW, you know?

Yeah, I don't think I'll be replacing the fluid as the clutch was done by some sucker shop that charged me waaaay less then I think they should have (probably didn't know what they were getting into... lol) and they replaced the fluid then.

As far as the balljoint goes, the FSM says to remove the hub/knuckle from the LCA, but you're saying that I don't need to do that? Just undo the strut?

 

[DR1665]

Well, don't quote me on that one, sir. It's been a while since I've pulled an axle. If the FSM says to do it one way, that's going to be your best bet.

Good luck and welcome aboard!

 

As my preferred method is to separate the knuckle from the control arm, here is how you do it.

Loosen the ball joint nut.

With the steering wheel at full lock towards the side of the car you are working on, pick up a BFH.

Proceed to hit the knuckle itself where the ball joint shaft goes through. Hit it HARD. This will shock the metal on the knuckle, causing it to release the ball joint. It might take a few good wacks of the hammer to get it done, and I say again, hit it HARD, but it works everytime.

 

[Barnes]

Even better, apply pressure to the ball joint while you hit with the hammer.

 

Thanks Justin and Brian.

To Justin: I have a hammer... and my friend who owns a VR-4 (is probably on here) was over helping me earlier, doing exactly what you described, but our hammer is too small.

I will go out and continue to beat on it as soon as the rain lets up.

 

Instant Update:

I went outside and hit things with a hammer fairly hard. This is what happened... Success?

Oh, and one more for Brian:

 

[Barnes]

Yes, looks like success. Also, nice JSB pic. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DR1665]

Haha! In that last picture, is it just the angle, or did you stop a Volkswagen with your rear bumper too?

 

Dude, this car used to belong to my best friend's Dad, and one day he was driving it around and was completely stopped at the intersection when he was rear ended at like 25-30 MPH by some asshole in a Volvo 240 wagon. Needless to say, the Galant lost that one.

But it was "pulled out" (I don't think I have the bill from that one...) and I have no idea what that means.

But the car drives straight and performs great in the snow, so I'm okay with it... lol

 

[Adorsey]

You get the axle out? Easy enough just to drop the stut, pulls out at a little bit of an angle after. Did it look broken?
Well hope it went well
Welcome to the board!

 

We got the axle in and the car is still broken... Upon turning the wheels with the front in the air the rear drive shaft does this weird skipping motion. I think it's possibly the transfer case that blew... Any opinions?

 

[Barnes]

Hmm, almost sounds like your center diff. Although I have no idea how you could do that on stock power. I re-read your original post and realized there was some diagnostics that could have been done before you took the axle out. With the front wheels in the air, turn one of the wheels. Watch the other front wheel. See if it turns at the same rate in the opposite direction. Try both directions. Try to feel if it is smooth or the other wheel moves with a jerky motion. Now lift of the back wheels and do the same thing. This should probably give you an indication if your front and rear diffs are okay. I'm not really sure what you can do to diagnose the center diff. I think some people are familiar with doing that.

 

With both front wheels up off the ground turning in forward/reverse directions illicits an identical response on both sides of the car, but there is some slop in there and it feels kinda chunky when turning. The driveshaft coming out of the TC does some weird things when you turn the front wheels. I'll jack the rear up and see what happens back there...

 

I'll second the center diff being blown. I hope not, but the symptoms add up.

 

[DR1665]

Ouch. Hope it's not the center diff, man.

I had a similar experience last year. There was a pop and a lot of smoke/steam. We thought it was a blown hose or something, but it ended up being a roached tcase. Neither is necessarily cheap, but I'd rather replace a tcase than a center diff.

And please don't hate on the 240. Hate the owner, but not the car. Once I bend my 91, I'll be racing the 92 and looking to get back into a brick. He was probably doing like a bazillion miles an hour when he rear-ended that Galant, and everyone walked away. Volvo for life, yo.

 

What is the difference between the center diff being blown and the tcase? I've sourced a Tcase for $170 less than 100 miles from me and just need to do a spline count on mine before purchasing it, but I'd like to know more about this center diff thing.

There is some gear whine in 1st and 2nd, but the symptoms don't change based on the gear your in, only their severity. I can't find any mention of a center diff in my FSM, but I'm probably looking under the wrong index.

 

[H05TYL]

Just pull the transfer case out and have a look at it. There's only 5 bolts holding it in (plus dropping the downpipe out of the way). Another 5 bolts will have the plate off the side and you can see if there are any teeth missing or not.

 

If your center diff is toasted it means that the trans has to come out and be repaired or replaced, if its the transfer case well, the same applies but it tends to be cheaper. The t-case in our cars is just a simple power "re-director" so to speak, it simply changes power output from transverse to longitudinal. The actual power divider itself is in the transmission.