2003 H2 170,000 miles. After about an hour into a trip today, I left a stop light and heard some bad grinding from under the truck. Real loud if I gave it part throttle, But I could power through it for awhile and it seemed to go away, (I was still an hour away from home). It got progressivly louder, sounds a little like nuts and bolts with a handful of change in a clothes dryer. I got it home in the garage, Theres alot of play in the front drive shaft (I can turn it about 3 inches back and forth with the truck off) and it feels like something is loose on either end. (Not sure if its the transfer case or front end)
I plan on tackling this myself if possible. Any ideas???

 

I've seen a post on anouther forum about the shift fork in the transfer case being plastic and prone to failure? I did notice while I was driving the 4HI light was out. There werent any lights lit up on the 4 wheel drive selector.

Also saw posts about the driveshaft being too short, and not lubricating a bushing. Are they refering to the front shaft?

 

From what I understand the plastic shift fork is a problem with the H3, not the H2. From what I've seen the H2 does not have a plastic shift fork. I'm not the best with drive train issues but I guess the best place to start would be to see if it switches easily into other 4x4 modes.

 

I took off the skid plate, was going to drain a little fluid out of the front diff to see what it looked like... Nothing came out. Not a drop of fluid in the front differential.

I talked to a local transmission guy, He said the easiest way to fix it will be to find anouther front diff assembly.

What other trucks will this interchange with?
Is the Hummer front diff the same as a 3/4 truck?

 

Bad news for me.
Front differential is 2003-07 Hummer specific

I'm finding used ones in the range of 1200-1500 bucks.

So a simple lesson: Check all your fulids...

I only had the truck 2 months now.

 

Well I have a brand new differential on a pallet sitting here. ($2,000)

What is the proper gear lube for this?