transfer case

[Julien]

I'm in the middle of doing a 5 speed swap on my 325ix. To my surprise the transfer case in the car (auto) was bone dry when I went to drain it This car has been sitting for many years and I've driven it maybe 400 miles since. The car passed the jack test beautifully last sat. and as far as I can tell drove normally. Any chance it survived? Can I inspect anything in particular to see if any damage occured? I'd like to sell this thing

[spdracrm3]

Still a chance ,check chain slop thru the fill/drain holes if it's hitting case good chance it will slip soon if not already. Need to find leak and monitor seals carefully for future leaking and testing VC after a few hundred miles to recheck function (if seals got hot it may start leaking and the ATF you add can get into unit contaminating VC fluid causing failure down the road

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[packratbimmer]

Dude - if you have a good VC, keep it as a spare. I had a a cache of 7 transfer cases saved up over 15 years time and only three VC units checked out when it was all said and done. Also, the availability of the chains is iffy so another good reason to keep a spare. Same thing with the front output splines stripping...

[nando]

The vc has nothingg really to do with the fluid in the tcase. Its really for the bearings and chain, the VC is completely sealed (if its good).

[spdracrm3]

both the bad VC's ive cut open had ATF inside due to melted seals so the fluid does get in there as well as the silicone leaking out.
im not sure if seals were melted due to bad towing or if they got hot due to being low on ATF in the case . both were donors of unknown history

[nando]

well if the VC seals are bad, of course all bets are off. Normally though, ATF doesn't have much to do with the VC itself. Maybe a little cooling, but there's so little of it in there I doubt it does much.