Im almost finished with my th350 trans swap and i threw the front driveshaft in and drove it down the street a min to find the t-case popping when i slow down to a stop and my foot off the throttle. Doesnt make any sound when accelerating. Now i dont have a rear driveshaft made yet so... So i parked it outside the garage and if you grab the front driveshaft you can turn it about 3/4" that is what is making the sound. Its like it has slop in the tcase. You can turn the front and rear yokes back and forth at the same time and there is some slop. Is it chain stretch or what?? Reason i ask is cuz it wasnt making this sound before i removed the ax-15, which im sure has nothing to do with it... any ideas?? I got to do something or this thing sounds like its gonna grenade on me eventually

Sounds like a streched chain.

check the linkage... mine used to do that...

taking the tranny out, putting a different one, of a different length in will mess up the t-case linkage...

if you're planning on keeping the 231 for a while, id recommend the Novak - Adapt linkage -
http://novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_sk2x.htm
I have it, and LOVE it...

Good call by XJ ranger - try disconnecting the linkage and putting it all the way into whatever you want by hand from underneath. Maybe it is floating between 4 high and neutral or something.
If you have that much slop in the chain, I would expect it to slip under load. Especially off road.

yeah i had to play with the linkage to make it work. I had to redo one end by cutting the push thru deal off and welding on a 1/4" bolt to make it work. I will take the linkage off and knock it into 4hi and see what happens...

well the linkage was off by a hair but that didnt do anything. I took the linkage off and put it in 4hi and then 4 lo and drove around a min in each range. Still did the same thing. So i have a spare 231 and took it kinda apart to check the play on it and the front output only moves maybe an 1/8 of an inch back and forth as apposed to my other one's 1/2 an inch. So i guess i'm goin to have to swap chains and see what happens???

well i swapped chains. once i took my spare case apart and compared the chains i could clearly see that one was longer than the other by at least half an inch. So i put the other chain in and its so much better now. No more sounds of bricks rolling around in my t-case! I got a little rattle noise but i've narrowed that down to the trans mount bolts squeeking and popping when the motor torque's cuz i drilled the holes to big in the crossmember i built to allow for some error on my part... oh well

okay, i finally got my rear driveshaft built and installed. NOW the tragedy: t-case is raising nine kinds of hell when in 4 hi or 4lo. Im talking bad bad. To the point to where if you give it to much throttle it sounds like its goin to stop pulling. Now this is all just road testing around my street al like maybe 30 mph. Im goin to take it back out , but i have no idea what im lookin for here..... Can anyone help me??

When i took the case apart a week or so ago the pump pickup was full of silicone and mud, and there was mud in the bottom of the case but not all over everywhere. Did the pump get restricted so much that it ruined bearings/ chain , and what not??

If it ate bearings because of the mud the two shafts could have pulled together and be letteing the chain slip off. you could also have mud in your planetary which could cause it to make all kinss of angry noises.