Tranny Fluid leaking out Vent activating 4x4,and other issue

[OrlandoSonomazr5]

So my truck was in a minor front end collision a few months back and unfortunately due to funds and not wanting to spend 3k to have the front end rebuilt by some shop, I took on the task of replacing the Front core support and rebuilding the front end myself. Was a minor crash, mainly the damage was from the fact that I hit a RAV 4 which has a tire carrier on the back door, and it was higher than my push bar, and that did all the damage. The truck did sit on jack stands with tires on 4 about 6 months.

So after reassembling I noticed a few things. One thing was my front diff 4wd vacuum actuator that pulls the clutch cable for the front diff well the diaphragm ripped and inside i noticed a bunch of red fluid. Strange I thought to myself as I thought the front diff would use gear oil. The Vent tube also had fluid in it. I replaced the actuator do to ripped diaphragm and replaced the vacuum hose all the way back to the "y" behind the intake manifold. Get the truck on the road and first things first.

1. The Front axles were both shot - which I believe is cause I left the tires on while the truck was jacked up in the air for 6 months. Full droop I think stressed the cv joints. So I replaced both axles. One problem fixed.

2. Today I'm driving down the rd smell something burning and when I hit a red light a huge plume of smoke comes out the engine bay I know better than to just open the hood without hitting it with a extinguisher first as the rush of air with intensify the fire, so I kept driving till I saw a gas station which I Knew had a fire extinguisher. Sure enough she was on fire. Got the fire out to find out, that the vacuum vent for the transmission/T-Case was also leaking every time you hit the 4x4 button and had leaked enough due to testing of the new axles, to cover the heat/Sound shield on the firewall and eventually hit the exhaust cross-pipe and up in flames she went. I yanked out all the Heat/Sound material so it couldn't burn anymore and I could get her home. Upon returning home she is still leaking tranny fluid out of the vent tube, onto the exhaust manifolds and smoking. Yes I checked Fluids while Hot and Cold, shes not over full. Not sure how to fix this problem.

3. A whole other problem started today as well coming from either the driveshaft or the rear diff which a 3.73 posi. Under acceleration it sounds like a bike with baseball cards in the spokes. I'm not getting any vibration to indicate u joints or driveshaft unbalancing, it sounds like plastic or thin metal vibrating consistently with acceleration. almost sounds like ring and pinion are eating each other except its missing that metal on metal sound. Truck doesn't miss behave when this happening its just god awful to hear and I know its leading to something that's gonna break soon.


SO anyone got any ideas on my problems??????????????????????? I tried searching.


Edit : So found out my NP233 is filling with transmission fluid from a bad seal causing the t-case to over fill and over flow the vent tube. need to drop the t-case and replace all input/output shaft seals on tranny and t-case, will also do vacuum 4x4 plug and universal joints. Hopefully that solves all issues.

[HenryJ]

Replace the transfercase switch. That is likely filling your vacuum system with fluid. From the sounds of it your reservoir is full. Probably need to replace that and many of the lines too. I suspect you will find it in your heater controls. If so...it will be a long road to getting that mess cleaned up.

[Torskdoc]

The metal noise described in #3 could very well be the plug shields next to the exhaust manifolds. My 95 Astro with a 4.3 had 2 of them come loose and they vibrated like crazy upon acceleration and it sounded like a tin can being hit by playing cards on the end of wagon wheel spokes. tightening them up or removing them (last resort) is only way to get rid of noise.