My transfer case is not playing fair

[sy2207]

Everytime I would stand on the brake shift between reverse and drive my transfer case would audibly clunk by the propshaft output. It would do it at gear changes as well. So I pulled the transfer case apart. What blows me away is that I cant find anything that would be making the noise. No metal shavings no bent broken mangled gears, all the bearings look good. Is there anything in the case that I should look for. Could it be in the clutch??

One thing that concerns me is that there are spider webb type cracks around some stress areas inside the case. These cracks do not carry out to the outside of the case, and doesn't leak fluid. Is this normal wear? I don't think the driveline was put under too much stress. The truck has 82,000 and the previous owner for 8 years didn't know what a boosetd launch was. Could part of this noise coming from the case flexing and throwing out the tolerances in the parts?

Problems don't ever seem to be simple to fix on these trucks.

 

[MikeRenz]

are you sure all of the propshaft bolts were torqued down? Sounds like some got loose and its shifting around on the threads.

 

[sy2207]

That makes sense and was one thing I checked. They were all tight enough to leave me with a skinned knuckle.

 

[HighPerformanceTrucks]

That is bizzare.

You check the chain?

 

[sy2207]

The chain was tight. The only wear I could see was on the edge of the gear. Nothing significant. I have read that the chains go slack in record time but there was no notible movement.

This is frustrating. Everything looks fine. It almost looks new. I would hate to put it back together and see the same problem happen again.