Faced with the lovely prospect of a city wide bus driver strike at midnight
tonight, I decided to bite the bullet and find out why Valdez was stuck in
4wd. A half hour 60 mph drive in 4wd is no fun.
I put on five layers of clothing and some cut down gloves, as well as a
tuque. The plan was to remove the tranny hump, and then remove the small
pressed tin cover that hides the transfer case shift rods, then proceed to
diagnose the fault, and, if my fingers were too numb by that point, try and
push the 4wd selector rod back into the case, disengaging the front axle for
tomorrow's cross town trip to college.
I got the tranny cover off (which is larger than a factory part due to the
wider tranny) and I removed the short arm that is attached to the yellow
knob. I removed this assembly and peered down the small hole that the
engagement pin rides up and down in.
The hole in the slider pin at the bottom was visible (once shifted into low
range) but it wasn't perfectly lined up. I played with the Hi-Lo shifter,
trying to push it back further into low, but it would stop at the exact same
place every time. I could not get the holes to line up, but they were close
enough that I could lightly tap the pin down into place.
After a lot of fiddling around I decided to fix it temporaily by filing down
the pin at the bottom so it would engage in the offset hole. I reassembled
everything and it works like a top. The alignment was extremely close but
just not close enough. I didn't have to file a lot off.
However, this arises some concerns. I'm not happy with the repair, as I'm
not sure why this is happening.
Firstly, this transfer case has always been a total nasty to shift. It is
probably the stiffest T case I've ever encountered. What would be the most
common cause of this problem? It almost feels like it is partially siezed,
but the shift rods are all good in the front part of the case. The gears and
the splines all look good. I just don't get where this tightness is coming
from.
Secondly, is there an adjustment for the stops when shifting back into low,
that would allow me to pull the lever back further? I'm pretty sure there is
no such adjustment, just the low gear hitting the end of it's "throw" or
travel, but I just want to be sure. Could it be differences in dimensions
because I used an early II front drive engagement housing? The shift rods
are III, the housing is II. They look identical. Is there a provision for
adjusting this internally when assembling the case? Is this usually factory
set and by mismatching components (and, taking into account rover's exacting
tolerances) I've gotten cases with different dimensions?
Anyways, it works. It's probably going to stay that way until I pull the
motor and tranny for the diesel conversion, but I'd like to know what's
going on. The stiff shifter is getting annoying, especially since it's way
worse in the cold.
J-L
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