DaveO9
Full Access Member
2800 mile family road trip over Thanksgiving week in the Tahoe. Ran great, really no major issues until about mile 2300 on the way home. Felt a hard shift from the trans (at least that's what it felt like) and from then on had a significant, impossible to ignore, metal-on-metal sound from the t-case. It took some diagnosis both on the road and now, since I've been home, to determine the t-case is the culprit. Engine off and coasting with trans in neutral - noise occurs. Same scenario, but with t-case in neutral as well - no noise. So by my logic, test 1 tells me it can't be anything forward of the trans output, and test 2 tells me it can't be anything behind T-case output. We were driving through the night and of course, this pops up at 10 pm in the middle of nowhere. No options other than to keep driving and hope for the best. Made it the final 500 miles home without further incident - more things to add to the list of things to be thankful for . The noise didn't ever get any worse, and actually went away or became not noticeable with long stretches of highway driving. We got home at 6 am this morning. After a long nap, I did some more testing this afternoon and of course it's still there.
Front of truck is up on jack stands now. No obvious external damage or signs of significant leakage. Took the fill plug out expecting nothing, and was surprised when fluid came shooting out. (transmission fluid level is good - I don't think I'm getting fluid transfer from trans to t-case). Fluid is black and smells a little burnt, though. Obviously something is really bad in there, but not sure what that would be so it still drives fine, but have the bad noise. (There was one point when I was getting a lot jerking and bucking at slow speeds, but that has gone away). Typical failure modes for a 3023? Truck has 193k miles, but everything in undercarriage is really clean. I have no idea on originality, but one clue: the shift motor looks like it's been replaced since it's a Dorman unit. I never did find an ID tag on the case. Should there be one somewhere? My RPO code in glovebox is NHQ.
With 500 miles of grinding I'm not sure a rebuild is worth it. I think my two options are either a reman ($900-$1000 shipped) or used with a 1-year warranty ($300-$400 shipped). I'm leaning towards the latter. Thoughts?
Front of truck is up on jack stands now. No obvious external damage or signs of significant leakage. Took the fill plug out expecting nothing, and was surprised when fluid came shooting out. (transmission fluid level is good - I don't think I'm getting fluid transfer from trans to t-case). Fluid is black and smells a little burnt, though. Obviously something is really bad in there, but not sure what that would be so it still drives fine, but have the bad noise. (There was one point when I was getting a lot jerking and bucking at slow speeds, but that has gone away). Typical failure modes for a 3023? Truck has 193k miles, but everything in undercarriage is really clean. I have no idea on originality, but one clue: the shift motor looks like it's been replaced since it's a Dorman unit. I never did find an ID tag on the case. Should there be one somewhere? My RPO code in glovebox is NHQ.
With 500 miles of grinding I'm not sure a rebuild is worth it. I think my two options are either a reman ($900-$1000 shipped) or used with a 1-year warranty ($300-$400 shipped). I'm leaning towards the latter. Thoughts?