Easy Output shaft removal to remove transfer case With Pics

[Dom B]

Hi Guys and Girls, plenty of people know how to do this but I had the opportunity to take a few pics as I was working on my engine/gearbox so thought others may find it useful.

Ok to remove the transfer case you undo the 6 (yes Six not seven) bolts that hold the transfer case and gearbox together.
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You then need to remove the output shaft that goes between the transfer case and gearbox to separate the two.

This shaft must come out towards the left of the car (Also known as the nearside or passenger side if you are in the UK).

Simply screw in a threaded rod with an M8 thread into the end of the shaft. Find a lump of metal with a hold through it. A big heavy socket may do. Screw a nut or two onto the end and grabbing the lump of metal/socket firmly tap it against the nuts on the end of the bar. The shaft will come out very easily after the first heavy pull compresses the clip.

Photos below.
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[Babylon6]

Presumably you dropped the oil from the box first - right?

[Davezj]

you can also use a rod and normal hammer to tap the optput shaft out from the opposite side of the transfer case.

nice write up. you could just buy a slide hammer which is what you built , they are quite cheap.

one other point i forgot to make was make sure you remove the output shaft before unbolting the transfer case from the gear box, it ensures the transfer case does not move in the process, and end up binding on the output shaft as you try and remove it. The output shaft should slide out with no resistance at all apart from the initial sping clip holding it in.

[Babylon6]

I am doing mine this weekend so interested in this and the areticle.

Do you need to drop the gear oil as well? Preumably it will leak from shafts if you do not?

[Davezj]

this thread just deals with removing the output shaft.

it all depends on what you are doing. there are not many jobs on the VR4 that require the transfer box to be removed. a gearbox removal or thransfer box change. apart from that not much. the auto box has ATF fluid passing into the transfer box for part of the lubrication, plus the normanl gear oil in the transfer case. i would imagine the manual box would be the same.

when you remove the drive shaft, any oil in the gear box will leak out i think.

[Babylon6]

Sorry yeah - I am removing gearbox so I need to do tcase and shaft as well.

[Davezj]

There is a grear box removal guide in the library it covers everything needed to do the job, i believe it has been written for the auto box, but it will be quite similar to the autobox.

[wintertidenz]

When I did my transfer case replacement there was no ATF in the transfer case itself. However, some did come from where the drive shaft goes in (centre diff IIRC).

If there is ATF in your transfer case then there is a real big problem.

[Nick Mann]

There are three areas where shafts go in to the transfer box. If you take the transfer box off you should get gear oil out of the back in the propshaft area but the lubrication to the front of the box is from the gearbox oil. You should get a bit of gl4 or atf from that area depending on the flavour of your gearbox.
I would always drain the oils from the transfer and gearbox before removal. You won't lose all the fluid from the gearbox if you just remove the shafts and transfer box but you will lose plenty and in a very messy way.