Difficult to shift transfer case

[LibTimothy]

My transfer case has suddenly become very difficult to shift. Everything connected with the shifter looks normal to me; however shifting into low range or back into high range now takes considerable effort. There is no gear grinding or anything like that; it is just hard to move the lever.

Am I, most likely, looking at an adjustment issue, a lubrication issue, or have I possibility worn out the shift cable or something worse? Or could it just be lack of use?

Thanks for your time and trouble.

Timothy

[undysworld]

Timothy,

I had a similar problem a while back. In my case, the shifter cable was binding where it attached to the top of the transfer case. It's a socket that fits over a ball, with a little clip to hold it in place. We removed it from the ball, cleaned and lubed it, and it's good again. It's a bit tough to get at though, IIRC. We did it from below.

Paul

[Jimm391730]

Try disconnecting the shifter cable from the xfer case arm and see if the cable works freely; the cable runs dangerously close to the muffler and can freeze up from the heat (pardon the pun).

Jim M.
712W and 710M

[David Dunn]

The ball/socket joint at the t-case are famous for freezing up, the cable twists to make the arch that the socket does when shifting from hi to low, until the cable breaks. All types of mucks collect on top of the t-case, and usually not washed off after offroading in water and mud....Pull the joint, clean both real well, and apply grease to it.

[LibTimothy]

I will pull the cable and clean and lube it tomorrow. Then I will report back.


Thanks!

Timothy

[LibTimothy]

I couldn't see the cable connection at the transfer case so I attempted to move the gear shift lever to get a better look and.....

snapped the cable.

Looks like a pain to replace too.

Right now I have it in low range so I should be able to go out and play tomorrow, but I will need to fix this.

Anybody have any advice on the best course of action?

Thanks.

Timothy

[David Dunn]

The lever arm for the T case is on top, easily reachable on the rigt side of the truck. You can shift the t case by hand back into high range. If your cable broke in the threaded section, you may be able to add a coupling nut and stud onto the ball section ( after removing the broken stud) and reuse the cable.

Back in my days of gas Pinzes ( right after the dinosauer age), this happened on my 712, and I spent more time removing and cleaning the ball and socket than anything else.

[fuh2]

I'm just beginning to resuscitate my 710M that's been collecting rust for 5+ years.

On the to-do list is fixing the t-case cable that broke exactly like this:

The ball/socket joint at the t-case are famous for freezing up, the cable twists to make the arch that the socket does when shifting from hi to low, until the cable breaks. All types of mucks collect on top of the t-case, and usually not washed off after offroading in water and mud....Pull the joint, clean both real well, and apply grease to it.

The cable and shift lever both move easily, but there's not much room to get at the frozen-on ball.

What's the best approach here?

Remove shift lever from t-case?

Jack body off frame a couple of inches?

Once I get the ball off the shift lever, I figure I'll just weld it onto the broken cable end.

[4x4Pinz]

Take the lever off the transfer case. There is a wire clip that retains the socket on the ball. If the ball is rusted very badly the wire will not come out and will need to be replaced (very small cotter pin worked for me). I ended up freeing the seized cable and then the adjustment points. with the cable out I was able to thread the remaining portion of the cable end to accept the ball and jam nut. cleaned everything, reinstalled and adjusted the cable, has been working well for some time now. I also added another clamp to keep the cable housing away from the heat shield. You could see where the coating of the cable housing had started to sag from the heat.

Of course the other option is to order a new cable

[David Dunn]

It's been many moons since I repair one of mine But, there is enough room to soak the ---- out of the ball joint assembly to get it apart ( don't forget to remove the retaining pin).
Since I had plenty of threads left, I extracted the broken section of the threads and installed a short (metric) stud and a ( metric) coupling nut to re-attach the cable end to.
If there isn't enough threads left, bite the bullet and order a new cable!

[fuh2]

Cool, thanks for the guidance. Working with the lever and rusted ball on the workbench instead of in the 1" of clearance between t-case and frame sounds great

It's a rusty, muddy mess there on top of the transfer case. I guess the service and parts manuals will tell me what to expect once I chisel the mud and dried cement (long story) out of there.

[4x4Pinz]

on my 712 I had some nylon washers cut to cover the area below the t-case lever where the seal recess is. I had some small pebbles from the desert washes get into that area and when I would shift the t-case they would destroy the seals. The seals have not been destroyed since the installation. Have never experienced this with my 710 but then again I don't play in the washes as much with it.