2002 Escalade transfer case

[treehan77]

Thinking about picking up this 02 Escalade. It looks pretty good, owner says transfer case is only issue. Haven’t driven it- he says he doesn’t recommend that cause of the t case. Are there any common issues, such as the motor, that go out and can be replaced easily/fairly cheaply? He wants 800 bucks for it. I figure if I don’t have to replace the entire t case, it’d be a nice little flip. 230k but has new transmission apparently 8k ago. I have a 2wd 05 Yukon, so know nothing about the transfer case. Couldn’t find much searching for some reason. Need to know what’s common, and if I could drive it 20 miles home.

 

[wjburken]

Thinking about picking up this 02 Escalade. It looks pretty good, owner says transfer case is only issue. Haven’t driven it- he says he doesn’t recommend that cause of the t case. Are there any common issues, such as the motor, that go out and can be replaced easily/fairly cheaply? He wants 800 bucks for it. I figure if I don’t have to replace the entire t case, it’d be a nice little flip. 230k but has new transmission apparently 8k ago. I have a 2wd 05 Yukon, so know nothing about the transfer case. Couldn’t find much searching for some reason. Need to know what’s common, and if I could drive it 20 miles home.

Curious as to how bad the transfer case is and why it wasn’t bad enough to deal with 8K miles ago when they supposedly put a new transmission in it but now is so bad they don’t recommend you drive it.

For $800, seems pretty low risk as you could probably make you money back if worse case means you have to part it out.

 

[rockola1971]

Transfer case cores are cheap and they truly are fairly easy to rebuild. Not near as complicated as a tranny is. Snapring pliars, bearing installer set and seal remover/install set was all i needed in "specialty" tools for my 03 tahoe transfer case rebuild. Parts are easy to get and not very expensive at all.

If the chain is peaking out of the case then thats a big no on driving more than a few feet. You have to be careful with this because if the tcase locks up it can rip the tail of the tranny off and ruin the tranny case effectively junking the transmission. Do the old tow by chain after dark and remove the rear driveshaft if it isnt way too far from you. Keep it in neutral so its "driver" will have brakes and power steering.

 

[OR VietVet]

"transmission apparently 8k ago". Did you see paperwork for this or that was just thrown out there in conversation? Maybe the trans was gone thru because of a problem but it turns out the transfer case was really the problem and the owner decided to not put more money in the rig?

 

[Fless]

What symptoms does it have that leads him to think/know transfer case?

 

[treehan77]

Haven’t seen it yet wanted to know what I’d be getting into. If they do t have paperwork for a new tranny, I’ll probably pass. If the engine is good (6.0 right?), seems like I could get my money back anyway

 

[rockola1971]

Haven’t seen it yet wanted to know what I’d be getting into. If they do t have paperwork for a new tranny, I’ll probably pass. If the engine is good (6.0 right?), seems like I could get my money back anyway

I myself wouldnt pay $800 for a 6.0L with 230k on it if i were just looking for an engine BUT if there was proof the tranny was actually rebuilt and the body and interior was above average for a 02 vehicle then I would snag it up. Might be worth rebuilding the front end and tcase if rest of esky is above average condition. Keep in mind that I can do all of the repairs myself. A garage would cost enough for labor and parts to not really make the $800 for the esky a very good deal. Id bet the frontend if it hasnt ever been ran through needs a rebuild.
Could be a very good deal to make a daily driver but for flipping? Maybe not so much.

 

[treehan77]

Welp it’s already sold so I don’t have to worry about it

 

[iddqd]

I want to snap in Hummer Tcase. It's a bolt on, but requires electrical work.