And in pretty glorious fashion!

One of the trucks at work decided it didn't like it's transfer case anymore.. Let go at 65+ on the freeway.

Think this qualifies as "catastrophic failure".

Rear half of the case.. Chunk that remained connected to the driveshaft..


Few pieces managed to stay connected to the trans and front drive shaft..

Someone needs new underwear.

Ouch no band aid will fix that.

I bet that sounded awesome when it happened.

So who left it in 4WD ?? 'cause that's what usually happens when you do.

Ouch. I've seen a few blow like that in my career. Had a Super Duty nearly get totaled after the front driveline and gear assembly ripped up the floor and frame.

That had to make a hell of a noise. What kind of truck was it on before it was all over the freeway?

Dodge?

F550.  They said It made a hell of a bang.

Will dig into what's left tomorrow and try and figure out what happened.  

4wd wasn't engaged, hubs may have been. Didn't get much of a chance to look at it. Was trying to drop the driveshaft quick as possible while laying on the side of I-35 so they could tow it.

That blowed up real good.

Dodge uses transfer cases from New Process. Sorry, maybe next time.

This was an NP273...

Yup. Almost identical to the one on a Ram.

 

They blow up the same way.

my 99 dodge ram sploded going down the highway.  huge hole in it.
Still under warranty when it happened. Was not fixable. Was a total replacement.
Mine I think was caused by overdrive shifting in and out to much while towing a camper.

I share your love for mechanical carnage... It's why I work on heavy equipment.

Dear'ol Dad blew Mommies tranny in her '67 GTO. 400 4 speed.

If only there were pictures.

Dad was hauling in that 4 speed goat, approaching 110 mph. Shifter started shaking and Dad's friend in passenger seat said "Get your hand off that shifter!"

Immediately after, the shifter went through the floor. Transmission blew up.

They picked up the pieces of the tranny off the road and threw them in the trunk.

Disabled goat arrived back at the homestead on a flatbed, as mom watched through the front door.

Hell I could look at the pics and tell it was a NP transfer case!

looks pretty dry, no oil residue. it should have slung oil everywhere under the truck. looks dry to me.(Ford tech)
also the non ford orange silicone, is a dead give away some one recently worked on it.

Thats what I was going to ask.

Need one of these sombitches, aint no stopping an Atlas2.

Most of the modern NP transfer cases hold a small amount of fluid (a quart or a quart and a half often times). They are also difficult to check the fluid level on (compared to most of the other fluids). And they LOVE to develop slow, easily overlooked leaks.

Thus, it's easy enough to end up driving on a dry transfer case. Then, they grenade.




If you have a transfer case, you need to check its fluid level and watch for leaks. They seem to leak more than differentials and the leaks seem to be less noticeable.

Yeah where's the oil and crap?

I'm not sure what Dodge puts in NP transfer cases, but GM uses dark blue stuff which would be easy to spot. I suspect this transfer case was bone dry. Happens all the time and they explode.

Or a NP205. Whines like a bitchy ARFcommer but pretty much bullet proof.

Not to hijack OP's thread, but along the same lines so maybe excusable?  I will start a new thread if this is inappropriate.

My 2004 Silverado half-ton apparently fell victim to a transfer case "pump rub" problem (well-known if you happen to know to look for it ), developed a hole in the transfer case and eventually ran dry before the local mechanic caught it during a lube job.  Since then, I've made sure to have them check the level and top it off if necessary with every oil change.  I've been looking into some repair kits, but haven't fixed it yet.

Recently the truck's starting making a very strange, intermittent noise... hard to describe, but it's almost like nails on a chalkboard, or a fork being dragged across a glass plate.  The first time it happened, I stopped the truck and looked on top, thinking maybe a branch had fallen from the tree I park under and was sliding around on top.  Doesn't happen at any particular time, like under acceleration or turning a corner or anything, and it doesn't happen every time I drive the truck. I've been trying to pin down where the noise is coming from, but it's not easily "localized" while driving.  I'd almost have to be hanging underneath the truck listening for it to even figure out what end of the truck it's coming from.

I'm afraid it's the transfer case, though it's unlike any metal-on-metal sound I've ever heard coming from a vehicle. It's not a grinding noise, or some kind of gear lash or whine.  More of a "chirping"... I also looked to see if there was a tree branch maybe caught between the cab and the bed of the truck rubbing, if that maybe helps to describe the sound.

Can the transfer case be pulled and inspected to see if there's any apparent damage, or is a "just in case" replacement the only option?

Mechanic (a good one, who I've used for 15 years and trust completely) also checked the U-joints and brakes, all good there.  It *could* be a wheel bearing judging by the sound, but typically those noises change when cornering in one direction or the other.

Suggestions?

You owe me a keyboard.

Front U joint on the rear drive shaft is bad

 

I hear on the new Rams they did away with the spare tire carrier and put a spare tranny in its place.

a little bit of JB weld should fix it, right?

U Joint.

 

I know a guy that claims his did just this, dropped the whole case going down the road, but he said turned around to pick it up off the road, then drove home. I had to have a face. Guy was always telling some ridiculous story.

I'm waiting for mine to do that.



I've been hearing a clunking noise on acceleration.  My mechanic has spent a week trying to find something wrong.  The only thing he hasn't done is pull the transfer case and take it apart.

Op is now father of a fully blown up transfer case!

My brother had a stack of 550 transfer cases by his stall from people leaving the front hubs locked. It normally removes the front of the case though.



 

We used to shuck one every time we put Cepeks on the front of the pulling truck.

We had a hillside full of them though so it didn't much matter if we thought we could place in the money in the Modified class.  

We typically ran Ground Hawgs or Terras in S/S and the drive train was as near bullet proof in that class as you can realistically be.

Missed a shift at around 140 MPH with a T56. Transmission shop guy said he opened the case and realized where the phrase "grenaded a transmission" came from.

The king of t-cases

What's the propensity to explode derived from?
Running it dry will of course cause heat. Does that heat the air in there to the point of expanding/exploding? I'd guess not.

So what causes the explosion?

If it can break spectacularly.

It will do so on heavy equipment.

If you look at the parts  you can see no oil residue on anything, even if it was low on oil or had a leak there would be some oil film on those parts. my vote recent repair and forgot to refill.   Ford tech for 30 yr.

Those were my first two questions....

High velocity metal pieces hitting stationary metal pieces.  

Looks like by the picts it didn't have oil in it?

possible, but it looks like there's a thin film on everything under there, looks like some is even dripping off the exhaust flange.

Back when I was drag racing, I had a Coan C-4 trans behind a 302. It was bullet proof. Went to a Windsor, same thing.

Went to a 460. Then it went from a 3,000# Mustang into an 1,800# rail dragster and had to really start beefing it up to be able to handle things as the tune-up improved.

Never told Coan anything about what I was doing with it, just kept making it stouter with some one off items and more and more mods as items gave under the strain. This all took place in the late 80's and through the 90's so there were virtually no serious performance parts for a C-4 yet. We were making things as we needed them or adapting other parts as much as we could. I waited 10 weeks for a computer program to be made for a CNC machine to cut a coupler that adapted a C-4 tailshaft to a big pinion Ford rear end. That really sucked but I think I got the first one Mark Williams ever sold.

Finally, the Birdcatcher went on. Man, she sounded mighty keen.  

That thing hit high gear and 'sploded alllllllllll over the track.

Shipped it back to Coan (who had done all the mods to this point without so much as a question) and got a call back.

It went like this.....


Coan.. this trans is FUCKED.

HB.. I kinda figured that. What are we gonna do to it now?

Coan.. why do you always ship it to me with no bell housing?

HB.. Cause it's smaller and easier that way.

Coan .. You sure that's the only reason?

HB.. Err ...uh....yeah. Why?

Coan tell me what pattern bellhousing you run on it.

HB uh...er... 385.

Coan.. 385?    

HB.. Yeah.

Coan.. 460?

HB.. 460 HI-PO  

Coan.. How much "HI-PO'?

HB.. A whole lotta HI-PO.  

Coan.. YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO THIS TRANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

HB.. Dave, I been doing it for years.

Coan.. Well, you can't do it anymore. There's nothing left. You need a 'Glide.

HB.. I bought a complete top end with a 14-71 Littlefield blower to put on it next year.

Coan..   You need a Lenco and a Bruno!

HB.. Can ya hook a brudda up?

Coan.. How fast you wanna go you crazy bastard?

HB.. Don't know......as fast as I'm able till I run outta money or the ol lady runs me off I reckon.  




I haven't raced anything serious in years but if I ever go back to it and Dave or Chuck are still there, Coan will furnish the trans and converter.


Top notch stuff and good people.

65+ on the freeway?  I'm guessing someone had it in 4 wheel drive at the time?  I couldn't imagine one letting go just free spinning in normal drive.

It looks like there is oil slung all over everything in the second picture.

I've seen it a time or two.  The carnage can be amazing.

I saw the oil on the exhaust also, but not a trace on any gears or hard parts, also if you think about it, if the thing was run low/out of oil the gears and shafts would show heat marks.

It looks really clean inside like it was opened up for a repair, new silicone showing, and never refilled. my thoughts.