How's it fellas,
. I have a question concerning my transmission in my 85 4x4. My girl was driving it home one evening and it just completely locked up. Now I've been wrenching for quite a while, and transmissions aren't my strong point. When I got there it was definitely locked up could not move it at all put it in 4 by still wouldn't move. The transmission was rebuilt less than 5,000 mi ago and had no issues at all up until that night. I'm sure it can be a number of things and I apologize for the novel. Just give it a quick rundown as to what happened. I'm about to rip this transmission out and one of the questions I have is if it were in neutral shouldn't the rear wheels roll? For towing purposes? Course I tried everything to no avail. As well the tow operator. So I've tried moving the driveshaft and it's locked, even in neutral. I know a 2wd. Trans if putting it in neutral the rear wheels should move freely. With a 4x4 it does not, until I put the transfer case into neutral. Then everything frees up. As I mentioned I'm not very familiar with transmissions or transfer cases. But if I were towing it myself would I have to put the transfer case in neutral as well? I'm quite sure before the tow truck operator showed up that I tried putting that transmission in neutral as well as the transfer case and it wouldn't roll now that I've gotten it home and gotten the trans and transfer case in neutral it seems to be moving free. The rear end isn't locked up either. when I detached the drive shaft it was moving fine and that's what I thought was the culprit to begin with... It was not! Sorry for the novel. Any ideas or info as to why or what could have happened for it to lock up would so be appreciated! Thanks in advance fellas. Have a great one.

 

I'd start by checking the oil and maybe draining it to see how much comes out of both the t-case and trans AND what that oil looks like. I'd also do the same for the rear diff