Thread: Transfer Box Queries.........

The red lever is pivoted on a bracket at the bottom, after passing through a sort of loop on the front of the selector shaft, all outside the transfer case. The most likely cause of the problem is something interfering with this movement outside the box. Possibilities include sticks or stones interfering with movement, or the bottom pivot pin loose or missing, or the loop loose on the selector shaft (held by a nut and spring washer). An anti-rattle spring on the ball that moves in the loop may be missing, but this should not have the effect you describe.

The other likely problem is rust on the selector shaft is causing it to stick. Removing the driver's floor panel should enable you to see what is happening. (You can see from underneath, but a lot easier with the floor out.)

Less likely is an internal problem. There are a variety of possibilities, including lack of oil, or something loose or broken in the mechanism in the front extension housing, or the selector fork loose on the selector shaft.

The bottom plate of the transfer case and the front extension can both be removed without removing the transfer case. If no external problems can be found I would remove the bottom plate to check what is happening. But before this I would make sure I had the manual and understood how it was meant to work.

John

It is pretty common for a little rust on the selector shaft to cause a problem. I have had this happen to me on an old landcruiser and I used to gently tap it with a hammer and add some WD 40 it seemed to work but it could also be a bit of whind up in the driveline. Once (in the same Landcruiser) we jacked one wheel up and it spun around very quickly and all of a sudden it would go into 2WD and 4 HI and Low no worries.

I've removed the floor panel to gain access to the selector shaft and see what's going on. There is no rust or debris anywhere and everything looks in order I've lubricated everything in the area also.

What I have now found is that when the yellow knob is depressed and you try to move the red lever from high to low, the yellow knob is springing up when the red lever hits neutral. The red lever will then not move into low or back to high unless you hold the yellow knob down.

So now the red lever is in the 4wd high position with the yellow knob down, but I can't get back into 2wd.

It's obviously a fault inside the transfer box somewhere but I'm not sure if I'm qualified to have a look inside

yeah ya are....

drop the front propshaft
pull the floor plates up and take the covers off the front of the tcase where the front output shaft is...

if you're lucky you'll find the problem there, if not its time to take the foot off of the leg... not that hard but I dont recall it coming off in situe.

Maybe try pulling the yellow lever up while pushing the red lever fowards into High Range and it could work because I've done this before on my IIA

The front extension housing can be removed in situ according to the manual, although the second instruction is "remove the seat base" (probably easier than removing the gearbox).

Looking at the manual.I suggest that you remove the dust cover on the front of the housing and check that the two selector shafts in there are free to move. The symptoms suggest that the upper one is not moving, either because it is stuck due to rust on the shaft, a broken spring, or the pivot pin that is on the rod with the hole that locks the yellow knob has broken or come out (extension housing off job).

The way the mechanism works, is the high low is direct action, but the four wheel drive engagement is via springs on the selector shafts.

John

I've just been trying to engage gears again, but with the vehicle running this time. I've now discovered that it's stuck in 4wd high not 2wd, when the red lever is put into the neutral position it's in 4wd low. Pull the red lever back again and it remains in 4wd low. This can only be moved while holding down the yellow knob.

Strange noises are also coming from the box so I think it's past it's sell by date.
Another factor is that it's probably not been used for many years which has not helped

I've been looking at my workshop cd and I think it's beyond me, so maybe it's time to replace or recondition both gearbox and transfer box.

Just as a matter of interest I recently removed the whole gearbox because I couldn't remove just the output shaft housing as I found it hit the crossmember in front. Maybe I was just doing something wrong. The box kinda needed replacing anyway, I'm sick of grinding second gear...So I'm rebuilding the old Series 3 box to put back. (Yay! full synchro ) Only downside is the cost is rising each time I look at it... All because I bought a rebuilt g-box off a landrover guy who hadn't rebuilt it properly. Oh and rebuilding the transfer and box isn't that hard if you have a manual and maybe a little mechanical experience.