I have a question about my transfer case...

[Sine Deviance]

Okay... so the weather was really bad here last night and we got about a half foot of snow in a period of about 4 hours. So the roads got ****ty really quick. My 4WD system wasn't working because the axle disconnect vac motor was shot, and I needed it to work, so I climbed under there and reversed the housing so that the shift fork is always in the 'engaged' position. So my 4WD is working again.

Now, we're about to head out of town for Christmas and we're going to W.Va., which if you didn't know, currently has about two feet of snow on the ground with more coming. So we decided to take my Jeep and I'm going to need to keep my shift fork in the engaged position for that trip and maybe another couple weeks, until I can order a Posi-Lok to replace the system.

My question is, if the front driveshaft is always turning in 2WD will it damage the transfer case? I know some trucks made back in the '80s had a problem with the t-case oil pump only working when the input shaft was spinning, and not the output shaft.

 

[volaredon]

shouldn't; as both my CURRENT Jeeps DON'T have the axle disconnect (my 93 YJ had that vac disconnect setup and so did my 97 Ram 1500.)
so that means both my current ones turn the T case all the time and no problems yet! Same NP 231 'case in my 93, as my 97 as my old Dodge and no T case problems; though I only run the 4WD in the winter.

 

[Sine Deviance]

shouldn't; as both my CURRENT Jeeps DON'T have the axle disconnect (my 93 YJ had that vac disconnect setup and so did my 97 Ram 1500.)
so that means both my current ones turn the T case all the time and no problems yet! Same NP 231 'case in my 93, as my 97 as my old Dodge and no T case problems; though I only run the 4WD in the winter.

Thanks! I guess I won't worry about it then.

 

[xjmarc]

Unless you have a locker in the front the driveshaft shouldn't spin anyway.

 

[Sine Deviance]

Unless you have a locker in the front the driveshaft shouldn't spin anyway.

Right, normally it wouldn't. That's what the axle disconnect is for. But like I said in the first post, my vac motor is dead and I bypassed it so that the front axle is always engaged, and so the front driveshaft will always turn.

I did this because I needed my 4WD to work in a pinch, and right now I just don't have the time/money to order the Posi-Lok system and wait for it to ship. I will be able to order it in a few weeks but I need my 4WD to work now and not then. That's why I am curious about the transfer case. Since it's going to be spinning from the output shaft all the time over the next few weeks I need to know that I'm not going to cook it

 

[xjmarc]

With my old D30 front which didn't have the disconnect and open dif, the drive shaft didn't spin. The spider gears take care of it. It's one of the reasons they quit using the CAD.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Unless you have a locker in the front the driveshaft shouldn't spin anyway.

AND...using lockers on icy roads is a recipe for disaster. You will spin out and find yourself in the ditch faster than you can say "Holey cr%p Batman how we end up here?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

You will be fine in 2wd.

 

[Sine Deviance]

You will be fine in 2wd.

Thanks. I was hoping you'd pipe in