Hopefully this will help someone avoid an expensive repair in the future. This problem affects the 1500, 2500, and 3500 series trucks but I'm not 100% certain which year models.
In November I noticed my truck started to "thump" when I let off the brakes after coming to a stop and sometimes as I came to a complete stop. My brakes are in good shape so I assumed the problem was u-joint related. I had a merchant automotive pump rub kit at home so I had my mechanic install the kit and asked him to look at the u-joints for wear. Due to being pressed for time last week he only got around to installing the kit in the transfer case. After driving the truck for 2 days it has not made the thumping noise (which you could easily hear and feel as well) at all. All of the slack I was feeling seems to have disappeared completely. What I thought was interesting was that he told me we installed the pump rub kit at just the right time because it was just starting to show signs of rubbing the back half of the transfer case housing. He said the spot wasn't close to being wore through and I didn't need to do anything else to it. I admit to not knowing exactly how all of those parts interact with one another but my guess is when I started feeling and hearing the thump was when the retaining clip in the transfer case broke and allowed the pump housing to start wearing into the back half of the case. If that was the case, I don't know if it would've lasted another 500 miles or another 50,000 miles but one thing for sure is that it would have ruined the transfer case eventually and I would have had a very expensive repair on my hands. I'm glad I had that kit installed when I did and for me, $285 for the kit and installation is fairly inexpensive insurance for a $1,500 transfer case.
In November I noticed my truck started to "thump" when I let off the brakes after coming to a stop and sometimes as I came to a complete stop. My brakes are in good shape so I assumed the problem was u-joint related. I had a merchant automotive pump rub kit at home so I had my mechanic install the kit and asked him to look at the u-joints for wear. Due to being pressed for time last week he only got around to installing the kit in the transfer case. After driving the truck for 2 days it has not made the thumping noise (which you could easily hear and feel as well) at all. All of the slack I was feeling seems to have disappeared completely. What I thought was interesting was that he told me we installed the pump rub kit at just the right time because it was just starting to show signs of rubbing the back half of the transfer case housing. He said the spot wasn't close to being wore through and I didn't need to do anything else to it. I admit to not knowing exactly how all of those parts interact with one another but my guess is when I started feeling and hearing the thump was when the retaining clip in the transfer case broke and allowed the pump housing to start wearing into the back half of the case. If that was the case, I don't know if it would've lasted another 500 miles or another 50,000 miles but one thing for sure is that it would have ruined the transfer case eventually and I would have had a very expensive repair on my hands. I'm glad I had that kit installed when I did and for me, $285 for the kit and installation is fairly inexpensive insurance for a $1,500 transfer case.
