BW 1354, who has cooked one.

[F150hybred]

Well, seeing as mine took a crap on me, and everyone seems to think they are a great transfer case, I wanna know who (besides myself) has had one fail.

Mine, was driving on the hi way doing a pleasurable 100 kph (62 mph) when I came upon a controlled intersection. Tapped the brakes to turn off the cruise and herd a whining noise. Thought to myself "that's a new nose... nope, don't like it!" Noise went away and all was good.
When I got to the city, speeds slowed and the whine came back when ever i was coasting.
Then came the (marvin the martian voice being used) "earth shattering caboom".
grind grind grind munch munch munch grind grind grind
screech!!! rear tires locked up then broke free.
I then coasted to the side of the road and thought... "this ain't good!"

After much pondering... I thought it was the rear axle. Figured if it was, locking the front hubs and pulling the stick to engage four wheel drive should pull me home. No luck... I had nothing. Not even reverse. I then figured the transmission was cooked.

A couple minutes later, I was talking to a friend on the phone asking for a tug home. He asks me, "did you try low range?" I thought to myself, sounds rather odd... but I'll give it a whirl. Pulled the stick, put in in gear and VOILA!!!

Yanno, for the life of me, I can't see how a transfer case could fail like that. I would have figured the low range would have gone LONG before that.

So, my question to you is, have you ever trashed a 1354 and if so, what were you doing when it failed? Were you flogging it, driving nice... it doesn't matter. Just let the rest of us know.

 

[exbass94]

Mine didn't catastrophically fail, but it could have if I didn't notice the fluid leak in time. The rear output seal was replaced under warranty at about 20k miles. I added 1/2 quart of fluid when I discovered the leak and took it to the dealer the next day.

 

[F150hybred]

To shed more light on this subject, after removal and tear down, I found a broken oil pick up and worn shift fork.From what I can tell, the worn shift fork was allowing for both high and low range to be engaged at one time... that or it was allowing it to go between neutral and high without me moving the shifter.
Either was.... BIG BOOOM!

 

[AllanD]

Mine's making metal.

I don' know what's fooked inside but I need to find out... SOON...

AD

 

[rboyer]

I first noticed mine was going bad when my speedometer would only work under deceleration. The rear output had lots of play but I still drove it around town for 2 weeks until I got the time to replace it but it never totally failed on me. The bearing in the rear did however slam around enough to create alot of aluminum carnage in the rear case half.

 

[CheapThrillB2]

I pulled one from an explorer once that a friend owned. He said his push button 4x4 didn't work. So he bought a manual 1354 and installed it. Well after replacement I went to tear down the 1354E to scavenge the guts and pulled the planetary out to only find metal dust. It was bone dry and he had been driving it A LONG TIME that way.

 

[AllanD]

Well, I got mine out and apart.

The front bearing retainer was broken.

The lip above the snap-ring groove for the ring that holds the front bearing (and thus the planetary assembly) in place had broken off.

there was a big C-ring of aluminum and the big retaining clip free to roam around inside the case.... as were the input bearing and the planetary assembly...



AD

 

[F150hybred]

I did manage to repair my "blowed up" transfercase. The majority of the internals from a 1354 auto transfercase will swap into a manual. Total repair bill on the "blowed up" transfercase... $0.00. Only my labour... about one hour. It's nice when someone has something with no use for it and GIVES it to you!

 

[sharpertouch]

i also blew up a BW 1354 electric tcase. just about the same exact way F150hybred did. i was driving up I95 for 2 hours doing 60-65mph (no speedo. lost that about 2 years ago). i slowed to pull off the highway for a driver change. while slowing down i heard a whining noise then a loud CLUNCK BANG. lost P-R-N-D-2 in 2WD and 4x4HI but still had 4x4LOW.
just took out the tcase today. ill let u know what i find after i open it up.