FU*K!! After waiting for almost a week, I finally got pissed enough to give them a call. It's been sitting under the builders bench gathering dust and finally he told me he wanted $95 to dissassemble the case and press the gear off. I told him to put back in the crate and I'll pick it up. I'm going to pull the whole thing apart and try using a bearing splitter in my 20T press to get it off. What a waste of time. Just in case, I was able to get another decent tcase from another member. Just waiting for it to arrive from Iowa.

That thing will probably pop off so fast with a press you will wonder what was holding it on

...the saga continues.


fwiw, I have 1/2 dozen pullers from small, for steering wheel type,  to ball joiint size, to very large (pull props from yachts).

you *might* convince me to come down there w/the right 'enticements'



btw- our RC membership is up in November; are we going to make a trip?

Love to have any help John, hint, hint. Wife works every other Saturday, so getting away for the weekend is problematic right now. I however still get most weekends off so could join you and the wife for a bit o camping. Holla back, we'll set a date.

Wild, Yeah, I'm pretty sure the press will remove it, it's getting to it that's the issue. Once I pull the back off the case and get everything off the countershaft, I still have to get THAT out of the case with the counter gear still attached. I've been studying the FSM, but need to actuall see it to figure it out. Picking it up this morning, Got my 50 hours this week in 4 days so have most of today to mess with it.

That thing will probably pop off so fast with a press you will wonder what was holding it on

this was my experience. i ended up dissassembling a couple of times after the press as i figured out how to fit the gears together(japanese wood box). i was able to tap it apart with no problem.

i also had to adjust the shims for the countershaft as the new gear(trail tough stuff) caused a bind on final case torque. no biggie, but watch for it.

great mod

Well, got it all apart, ( spare case) the press made fast work of it. Both the low output gear and clutch hub were stuck, but pressed off easily. After going through the old case ( took them both right down to the bare shafts)  I could see where all the noise and binding were coming from. Countershaft and main in old case had so much play in the bearings the shaft wobbled visably, I mean 16th"! Shaft itself was scored and worn under the gears too. On top of that the 4 wheel drive chain was so streached it wouldn't even fold and the drive gears had deep tooth groves in them. Good news is, My stock spare case that was originally in the Tracker is in Excellent condition, very little wear. Shafts, Drive chain, gears and most bearings are great. I say most because the rear center case main bearing took a hit getting everything pressed off. Local bearing supply will have one for me Mon morn.
All the Calmini gears and bearings in the front case look great except for the faces of the clutch hub and input gear where they ride against each other. I'm going to attempt to lightly sand the faces on a peice of glass ( nice and flat ) then polish them, and cut the oil grooves in the back of the clutch hub, as reccomended by Mike at trailtough.
Fortunately for me, years ago I picked up a GM dealer special tool set off ebay that was complete, and has all tools necessary, bearing installers, seal linstallers, removers etc, so putting everything back together should be much esier than getting it apart. I've got some pics of everything I'll post a bit later.

very good.

More damage found. Once I pulled the remainder of the front case apart and removed the Calmini gears from the shaft ( they at least slid off ) I found the locating ball for the thrust bearing was gone, either ground up or ? By the looks of the thrust bearing and face of the gear it rides on the ball had come out of the locating hole or was never installed correctly and rode around under the thrust bearing eventually cutting a channel into the gear face and thrust bearing before grinding itself to powder. The damage was at least .03 deep or more in the gear face, thrust bearing completely shot. This is a problem, I was able to clean up the back of the gear where it rides against the thrust bearing, and I have several spare thrust bearings and balls, but removing that much material from the gear means I'm going to have to come up with a shim to take up the difference. I have a stock of shims of various sizes from building Harley motors and I'm going to try them first. If that fails I'll give Trailtough a call to see if they can help.

Burned up main shaft, used up drive chain on top good one on bottom.  That's as far as it would fold. Gear damage.

I was able to clean up the faces of all the other gears no problem removing only the minimum amount of metal to achieve a smooth finish, but this one really took some work. Hope it's still salvagable.

Can-O-Worms man, I bet that case was run dry on oil, and the retaining ball
was never put in because they are a PITA to install with the low range gear set

Can-O-Worms man, I bet that case was run dry on oil, and the retaining ball
was never put in because they are a PITA to install with the low range gear set

Sure looks like it. Strange since I got it from a well respected member of this forum, and I've always serviced the fluid.
 I remeasured everything and it turns out I only had to take off .012 to clean up the gear face, and a shim on the countershaft doesn't look necessary. With everything polished up and new oil grooves cut into the back of the clutch hub I put the front case back together ( it's a lot easier to install the ball with the front off the case  ) and everything seems good and spins smoothly.
 Been working on dressing up the teeth where both clutch hubs are supposed to " slide " on and off ( had to press the rear one off too) but am getting nowhere, at least very little progress. Looks like I'm going to have to figure a way to press them back on somehow WITHOUT damaging the center bearing. Man, I could have just bolted in my good low milage stock case with twin sticks and been done. Those super low range gears sure make the difficult stuff a bunch easier though. At least I'm learning a bunch about how the tcase works. 

Picked up the replacement bearing this morning on the way to work and had the case back together and shifting smoothly in about 90 minutes once I got home. On the bench at least, it turns smoothly and quietly and shifts with a nice snick.  Gotta make a new boot for the top of the shifter and bolt it back in.
This type of repair is what happens when maintenance and inspection intervals aren't followed. At the first sign of apparent noise and vibration I should have yanked the thing, but to it's credit it and in spite of my neglect, it kept on working for quite awhile in it's sorry state. A testament to it's original build quality I believe. The locating ball coming out and the probability of it being run low or out of oil at one time is what killed this transfer case.
If the clutch hubs would have come off the original stock tcase like they were supposed to this job would have been cake. But the way I see it now,  I'm grateful Suzuki builds such a tight quality product.   Crash course in Tcase 101.
I had the advantage of having a Dealer Service Tool set to work with including some of the pulling plates and bearing installers needed, but still had to cut some lengths if stainless tubing and stack shims under the output in order to put both clutch hubs back on. Even after dressing the teeth on both the mainshaft and hubs they were still both tight fits and had to be pressed back on. They are tough little buggers

Gotta make a new boot for the top of the shifter and bolt it back in.

The shifter to t/case boot or the shifter to tunnel boot?

Suzuki only supplies the shifter to t/case boot (the #1 boot) with the shift lever, at a ridiculous price of course - I've had success using a cutdown boot from a steering rack - you need to select one where the narrow part of the accordion pleat is a snug fit on the t/case shifter neck.

The top of the selecter cover where the twin sticks come out. I had a boot steup from Rock4Fab, but it was made from very thin rubber and split in several places, and really didn't seal very well. I'm just going to use a chemical and oil proof rubber glove and make my own boot from that. I already have shifter to tunnel twin stick boot for the cab ( From Curry ) and it's held up very well. All I had to do for that was make up a new plate to hold it in.

...i'll pattern/create a boot for you the next time we we get together.

Cool, nice to know someone who can use a heavy duty sewing machine!