| My 1986.5 D21 was making an annoying clunking noise in 4L or 4H whenever the hubs were locked in even if I was taking it easy. At first, I thought it was the outer lugs on one of the Buckshot Mudders hitting the fender. I ruled that out and consulted my Haynes manual. It said that noise in those conditions indicated a problem with the front axle. I replaced both CV axles because they were in pretty rough shape anyway. You guessed it. Not the problem. So I tear out the front axle and strip it down. The only thing wrong with it was that it was out of the truck. (Ha, ha!) The driveshaft and universals were fine also. That can only mean the T-case. The stupid Haynes manual didn’t show an exploded view of the TX10 nor did it tell how to disassemble it. I checked the web, but no one seemed to be familiar with my particular problem. In desperation, I resorted to exploratory surgery. I removed the case, cleaned it the best I could and cracked her open. What I found was an “overgrown timing chain†that was so badly worn that it was climbing teeth and clunking back down only to climb teeth again and so on, causing the terrible noise that I was hearing. Armed with this knowledge and a new-found sense of purpose, I reassembled the case and reinstalled it so that I could still get back and forth to work while I gathered the parts. That alone was an ordeal; I needed the chain, new seals, speedometer drive and driven gears and a new speedo cable. All had to be special ordered. |
