alright i dont know how many of you have had this problem in the past, or are having it now or have heard of it and are curious.

Ive had a string of irritating BAD luck with the PLASTIC (why god why! the 2wd is metal!) drive gear swelling up and going for its own little trip around the shaft and not driving my speedometer gear so i can avoid tickets.
I've tried to do my own researching, heres what ive come up with.

Ford: who what huh? it does what? Nope! never had that problem before.
Bills Fords Only Auto dismantlers: Yep, been there, seen a lot of those come in as an exchange but i have absolutely no clue whats causing it. BUT! you can buy one of the transfer cases i got on a rack out here for $450 (thinking to myself... i didnt hear him guarantee or even mention that the one i buy wont do it either)

oh did i mention i have a lack of "experts" in my area?

so my question is what is the normal operating temp suppose to be? whats the possibility of there being something internally wrong causing the shaft to get hot and cool off / plastic gear to get hot and stay hot enough to slide off over the top of that tiny retaining ball?
Are there any fixes? say like an aluminum replacement gear? brass? something that doesnt swell fast like plastic? or does that just mean im a little red on the neck and looking for a custom fix?

 

so does that mean im alone here? nobody else has this issue or has had it?

 

just an update:
Still not sure what exactly the problem is, i heard the seals leak and over fill the t-case which could possibly be causing this. i looked into it, my seals are not leaking but im still having problems with the drive gear swelling up and sliding off.

until now my supervisor gave me some nice epoxy to use on it, i put a little epoxy on the shaft and speedometer drive gear, i barely had enough time to get it in place before it started setting up. i have not had a problem with it yet, but then again its only been a month.

hopefully a little redneck touch with some modern goodies is all it needs. time to sit, wait and watch it.

 

I have seen this problem before with vehicles that had a failing speedometer cable, which overstressed the plastic gear on the transmission tail shaft. Remove the speedo cable intermember and inspect and lubricate.

If the speedo cable is making a severe arc somewhere this could overstress the plastic gear.