1988 samurai questins

[05kas05]

i just bought a 1988 suzuki samurai and i believe it has a bad transfer case (it makes a loud whine mainly in 3-5 gears and only when accelerating, push in clutch it goes away, let off gas and it goes away)my question is how can i determin if it is the t-case or tranny.also if it is t-case how can i determine if i have a 1988 t-case or a 1988 1/2 t-case the vehicale production date is 11/1987 any help is welcome
and thank you

[Ronzuki]

a whine in some gears and not others would seem like tranny not transfer case. all power to both axles passes through tcase.

here in the U.S., early cases (and axles) have a small flange bolt pattern (12mm wrench will fit the bolts) later cases (and axles) have larger flanges and a 14mm wrench fits those bolts. the bolts are the ones holding the driveshafts to the tcase and axle pinions. you most likely have the smaller flanges if everything is still original. change was made mid 1988 to 89

[HedgeBoar]

I have an '89 with the same prob - very loud whine in 3rd-5th. Is yours worse at partial throttle than full?
I'm guessing it is the gearbox too, since it doesn't seem to do it in 1st or 2nd at all.....

Is this a common fault? mine has done around 160,000km...

[05kas05]

well hedgeboar so far everyone i have spoken to says transmission
so i just got two donor vehicles and will be swapping them out and puting in a new clutch while i am there i will keep u posted it will probably be a week or so

[HedgeBoar]

I've just found that my rear diff is in very bad condition - very sloppy input shaft, so quite possibly has ruined the gears. Although my noise sounds like it is coming from too far forward for this to be the culprit, I'm going to try a drive tonight without the rear driveshaft in..... see how it goes.

You might want to check yours as well...

[zukinoobi]

I only want to add that the Suzuki Download site has available free and complete shop reference manuals for most Suzuki models, especially the Samurai.

Another excellent source is Acks FAQs. In particular, his vacuum tube routing pages is definitely worth a visit!

Good luck!