Is My T-Case Salvageable

[JimyJames]

Hey Guys and or Gals,

Looking to see if I am up that one creek without a paddle. Seeing if there is a way to save my T-Case. Long story short I was tracing a shimmy and the shimmy beat me to the punch. Blew linkage, drive-line in the rear u joint and smacked the ish out of my T-Case webbing.  No leaks or gaping holes just the linkage is the issue.  Anyway to salvage this? 

[Slartibartfast]

Yikes. That thing took no prisoners. The ideal fix (looking at how chewed up the case is) would be a new (to you) transfer case and linkage. In a pinch, you might be able to Mickey Mouse it back together, though again, the damage to the case may make this more of a PITA than just replacing it with one that hasn't had the crap beaten out of it.

From what I can see, and assuming that what I can't see (shift shaft, lever, linkage) survived, it looks like all you've really got are busted-up shifter mounts and a popped-off end on the shift linkage that goes to the lever on the shift shaft. If that linkage isn't completely buggered and the ball joint will pop back together, then all you have to worry about is remounting the shifter. The rod through the bottom of the shifter is supposed to be supported by the blind hole in the case (the one that's blown out at the top) and the strap across the outside of it (the one that's been torn from its mounting post and is now pointing up at the floor). The strap could probably be straightened if you can get it off of the shifter, or replaced with a non-pretzelled one from the wreckers. (If you go to the wreckers, make sure you get the shifter assembly from an R50 like yours. WD21s have the same transfer case, but the shifter and lockout plate are different.) That blown-out hole in the case is what worries me. It doesn't look like there's much meat left to hold the shaft in place. The correct repair would probably involve a machinist and a TIG welder, and removing the transfer case from the truck, and if you're going that far, you might as well just replace the SOB and be done with it. Maybe you could make a steel bracket with a hole in either end, one end sitting over the blown-out case hole to support the shaft, the other end retained by that nearby bolt. You'd need to space out the outer support strap with washers of equal thickness to the plate. Worst case, bush fix, maybe you could build the case back up with epoxy putty, though I wouldn't expect that to hold for long.

Good luck!