Resurrecting a 71 SIIA

Hi. New to the forum. I am in the process or resurrecting a 71 SIIA that has been in the family since new. It would be a gross understatement to say it was allowed to fall into disrepair. I have done meatball maintenance and repairs on it for most of its life, trying to keep it viable as a utility vehicle for my sister's horse farm. About ten years ago the problems became more than I could deal with time-wise. It ended up sitting in the parking lot of my auto repair shop with numerous abortive attempts to solve its problems until my staff got tired of looking at it and pushed into the alley behind the shop - desolation row.. Recently I found time to work seriously on the beast and I have been documenting my progress on my YouTube channel at bit.ly/grandadfixit.

My immediate technical question: The car is stuck in 4WD. All of the external controls are working as they should. The yellow knob has the spring under it. I'm guessing the dog that slides in and out to engage 4WD is stuck due to years of inactivity or the spring mechanism that is supposed to pull the dog out of engagement is stuck or broken. The front output seal is leaking badly, so it would be nice to pull the front output housing from the transfer case to examine the front drive dog and associated mechanisms. Can the output housing be removed with the transfer case in the car?

Mark Anderton
First Landing Autocare
Virginia Beach
72 Triumph TR6
69 Morris Minor Van
firstlandingautocare.com
bit.ly/grandadfixit
Attachment 13172

I’ll have to look at my ‘73 to see if I can figure out what you have going on. I have a ‘60 that I need to resuscitate. I watched all your videos on you tube and will use them as inspiration. I live in Richmond, I’ll have to look up you and your shop whenever I’m down at the beach. Phil.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andertonm

Can the output housing be removed with the transfer case in the car?

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Have you tried to pull the red knob all the way back to release 4x4? If yes, I'd start by removing the floor boards and tunnel cover to get better access. Then remove the front drive shaft to give yourself more room. Take the dust cover off the transfer case and make sure nothing is seized up... with the clear access to all the moving parts, try moving the high/low lever back forth while moving the 4x4 pin up/down.

[Edit] Also - what leads you to believe it is stuck in 4 wheel drive?

Sometimes the vehicle and wheels needs to roll, a bit in order for 4 wheel drive to engage, dis-engage.