We’re talking about the minimum cost way to get this thing back on the road. I wouldn’t think used transfer cases that have been examined for free movement and shifting, and clean oil would be a bad risk. I’d hate to think what a rebuilt unit would cost. The used ones I found were in the $300 or so range.
They should charge at least $100/week for storage and given the possibility of this vehicle becoming abandon, a $1000 deposit will be necessary.
Towing for a large truck will cost $150 each way.
The cost of replacing all the damaged parts will likely cost more than a remanufactured unit, these are available for $1200. Also, a case resealed by an amateur will likely leak fluid.
A used transfer case, install it yourself in one day seems like an economical solution.
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I am either going to do a used transfer case or junk the truck. Rebuilding on my own time and possibly paying storage is not what I want to do. My guess is that metal debris was tearing the thing up. Also, this gradually got worse over the past couple years. It was a growl at first which I thought was new tires with aggressive tread but something in my gut told me it was a drivetrain issue. The clunks started over the last few months. I had some other trucks that went into the shop for a few things and kept driving it. I drove this one to the shop and drove the last one having work done home.
Also, with the shaft that loose and sloppy due to bad bearings, I can see other bearings and gears experiencing odd stresses that have caused strange wear throughout the unit. I am going to make this easy on myself by either replacing with what looks like a good used unit or junk the truck/sell for whatever it is worth in this condition.
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@cwatkin have you considered selling your truck to @George_San_Jose1
He likes 4x4 Ford trucks and yours is probably 25yrs newer than his
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This is a really quirky truck for parts as well. It is one of those 7 lug wheel models. I think I have a couple wheels I would send with it as well as they have gotten almost impossible to find. At one time it probably would have been worthwhile to part this thing out. Used wheels were like $300 but I scored a couple locally for $10. Then I found a couple more for $5 so got them. I am guessing that the need for these parts is no more and I wouldn’t want to deal with parting out and then getting rid of the remaining hulk.
I was going to have the flywheel replaced during a clutch change but they said that new ones are not available from Ford or anywhere else. I just had it resurfaced. I checks and used ones were impossible to find as well so that might be worth something. Again, this thing has some really strange parts. I was asking the Ford parts dept about the IMRC on the front of the engine. They insisted my truck didn’t have an IMRC and that it didn’t show up in any catalogs or diagrams. I made them go out and look under the hood and they agreed it had an IMRC. I swear this truck was made from leftover parts or something. It made buying parts for it hard and I always stuck to local parts stores in case I ended up with the wrong part. I usually just took the old part in and said I wanted the same thing. Half the time they would bring out the wrong part when looked up in the computer.
Wow. Finding the correct transfer case may be a challenge.
Also, this is probably a longshot that would require significant custom modifications but how hard would it be to just make this truck a straight 2WD and bypass the transfer case? I assume the transmission, etc. are all made to mate to a transfer case and that anything custom would require special shafts and adapters, etc. I was just wondering if one could take a driveshaft from a junk 2WD model and easily adapt it. My guess is not but I figured I would ask.
I would make no attempts to remove the appearance of 4WD with the shift lever and such. Odds are the next owner will be the scrap yard. If I can make it work and get another 2-3 years, that is really all I would want to get out of it at this time.
This would slightly reduce the usefulness to me of course with no 4WD. The other concern is it rolling when parked in gear due to loss of engine compression. One of my workarounds for this problem was to put it in low-range when parked.
I wondered about that as well. I am waiting to hear back from the shop until I make a decision. For now it is just sitting there with no storage fee. I will come and get it if they indicate it is going to not be worth it.
Have you tried searching for a transfer case on car-part.com? They list several for the 1997 F250.
Thanks. I just looked and there are several so I need to see the thing to see which one. Mine is the Aero or whatever body style and pictures of the trucks many of these come from are not that type. Maybe they are all the same??? This has the manual shift on the floor but electronic engagement of the hubs. I hear this is trouble for many as well but they have amazingly always worked for me. It looks like there is a switch in the transfer case to engage the hubs. I only know this because I pulled the wiring connector off driving through brush once and wondered why my 4WD light wasn’t on and the truck wouldn’t go into 4WD even in low-range.
Good news, it is much easier to convert from 4x4 to RWD…
Bad new, you will either have to buy a RWD transmission, (or replace the output shaft, tail housing etc on your 4x4 transmission, yes that means a complete tear down of your transmission and rebuild), RWD cross member and trans mount, use the driveshaft out of a RWD with the exact same wheel base, transmission and rear end as yours, or have a custom driveshaft made…
Basically find a donor truck with the same cab and bed (wheel base) as yours and use everything from the transmission back to the rear end, again, the rear ends have to be the same or a new driveshaft will be required…
Easy, it’s just money… lol
Yeah, it isn’t worth the money or troube for the truck in question. Most that old are being crushed pretty quickly by the salvage yards.
My options seem to be either a decent used case for not a ton of money or retire the truck…
I think I have this narrowed down to the Borg Warner 1356 or 4406 model for this truck but am not 100% sure as the truck is not with me.
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You know, I imagine that if all the work and thoughts that have gone into this posting went into that '97 Ford F250, it would look very much like this… L 
L . . .
Was it that TV Show, “Overhaulin” where the owner thinks their old vehicle is towed and later finds out I was all fixed up?
Sadly, if that was a short bed standard cab, the price for it would be ridicules…
What sort of xfer case do you have? Is it the full time 4WD version, which has a differenital to distribute the power fore & aft, allowing you to drive on paved surfaces in 4WD? That type often uses a chain. Or is it a part time 4WD unit, no differential in the xfer case, no chain, combined with locking/free running front hubs?
If it has a chain, maybe the only problem is the chain needs replacing.
If the latter, no chain, there may be a way to modify the current one so only 2WD mode is enabled. On my 4WD Ford truck, that would be possible I think. In 2WD mode the xfer case acts like a pass-through shaft.
I have to engage the 4WD manually. It is a shift lever and you can feel the gears sliding into place. That part is all mechanical. Then the front hubs engage via an electronic switch built into the transfer case. They are electronic which I hear is a bad system but this is one thing I haven’t had problems with.
I think it is chain-driven and odds are the main shaft just passes through in 2WD with no gearing.
Either way, it is more than the chain. The bearings are completely shot. The shop said there is so much slop and play when you grab the driveshaft and that was cause of the noises/clunks that caused me to take it in. I have no idea how long I ran it after the water got inside so would think the best bet is to replace it, used unit, or not, OR junk the truck.
They are both chain driving, but if the rear driveshaft has play then it doesn’t matter if it is gear, chain, pantyhose, whatever driven, the output shaft bearings (rear case) are shot and it will need a lot of work/money… lol
In order for the t-case to have a high and low gear range, it will require an input (front case) and output (rear case) shaft with planetary gears for the range selector linking them together…
Then you have a mode selector for engaging the 4wd or 2wd that the chain drives for the front case output shaft for the front driveshaft…
You guys are making me nervous, need to get my truck in for transmission, transfer case, coolant, differential service.
What, me worry? … lol … I’ve never changed the gear oil in my truck’s xfer case in 50 + years. I did change the gear oil in the differentials quite often when I had to cross streams deep enough to put the diff’s partially under water, but the xfer case sits higher. The only xfer case problem I’ve had is the selection lever, which has never worked correctly since the day I bought my truck. I can get it to work by diddling with it though.
If I wanted to worry about something, the front wheel axle shafts have u-joints and bearings that are basically impossible to lube unless the axle shafts are removed from the vehicle. I’ve never lubed them, and this is indeed something for me to worry about. My current solution is to remain in 2WD mode.
Someone told me I could probably change the transfer case out myself. I will look into this but if a complex job needing a lift, I will pass. I was basically told to chock all the wheels so it cannot roll on top of me, put everything in neutral, and it won’t be a huge job. I don’t know how true this is but it looks like there is a cross member that can be a real pain from the little research I have done.
I am going to see what the shop comes back with and decide then what to do.