Posted by Brian in Oregon on Monday, October 23, 2000 at 18:36:58:
In Reply to: Steak on a hamburger budget posted by Peter Hewko on Monday, October 23, 2000 at 17:10:57:
Aside from increased heat, noise and probably some wear, nothing.
Noise is probably the biggest issue. The transfer cases are loud, but especially above 45 mph.
Ray Suiter (www.helitool.com) says that if the edges of the transfer case gears are smoothed, the noise can be reduced. I don't know if there is a procedure for this or not.
Ray also says the noise can be reduced by going to a centered rear pumpkin. That would require either cutting and relocating the pumpkin on the stock M37 axle plus custom axle shafts (of diffrent length since you still need a slight offset) or a replacement axle. This allows running the driveline from the e-brake shaft. This eliminates a lot of gear whine since the gears that formerly drove the rear axle are now idling. Ray says doing this drops transfer case temp by about 50 degrees.
As far as heat goes, as long as you have the full ration of gear lube in it, heat should not be a problem. Rememebr these are mil-spec transfer cases designed to run in extremes, including desert heat. This meant testing them to about 130 ambient, depending on which year the specs were written.
I'm keeping my primary M37 w/winch stock excpt for the brakes and 318. I have another M37 that I might do a lot of modifications to, but that's down the road a ways. Dunno if I'll do it first or get my 41 WC 1/2 ton pickup on the road first.