Transfer case problem?

[Z28TWITCH]

Picked up another 2001 Tahoe with 88k on her. Decided to swap all fluids. Then had this happen, while doing the transmission filter, I went to remove the front driveshaft and to my surprise, I couldn't move it. I put the trans in neutral, still nothing. Put the t-case and trans in neutral, still nothing. I ended up spinning it over with a pry bar and got the front shaft out and in with this method. Now, I haven't had much experience other than removing and replacing the whole thing. What could this be? Truck drives good but I feel like that much drag isn't a good thing. Thanks.

 

[Chubbs]

2001.. that's about right. If you do some interweb searching, you will come to find that a lot of people have the front driveshaft "that turns" in older trucks. When the case was upgraded around 2003-2004 a design change to the internals allowed for a free-spinning front driveshaft while in Park, Neutral, 2WD mode.

 

[Z28TWITCH]

I've searched the web for about a week now, and had another mechanic look at it and we both say there's something not right here. When I say I used a pry bar to turn it, I used a 3 foot pry bar and a good amount oomph. Once the driveshaft was out, the front yoke spins by hand no issue (disengaged), but to turn the transfer case by hand would be impossible. My other 01 turns no problem by hand. I just dont want to tear into the transfer case for nothing.

 

[retiredsparky]

Could you have a frozen bearing in the transfer case?

You could call drivetrain.com at 800-216-1632. They don't charge to talk! I have bought a couple of rebuilt units from them and had good success. They seem to make a quality product.