Life with my Mahindra CL500 jeep: Fixing a faulty transfer case

The reason for the entire assembly to be overhauled is because of the accident risk owing to lack of handbrake.

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Part 2 - Small Setbacks leading to Eventual Mess Ups

Shortly after the paintjob, the Vehicle swiftly became my daily driver. The Dzire still being the family car meant that I had total control over the Vehicle.

But even before I could properly take any photos of the Jeep, and the New Paintjob and Roof it has, catastrophy of massive proportions had struck.

I had forgot to mention, in midst of the Enthusiasm of being a new owner, about a small noise, that used to come up every time I was driving the Jeep. What started off as a small rattle I ignored, over a few days become this insufferable noise, of metal screeching and crashing against something. The vehicle seemed mechanically fine, but I could not pinpoint a single reason on why or where the sound has been originating.

In between of all this, the new academic year meant that I had to shift back to Uni, and I decided to take the Jeep back with me. While I enjoyed my time at the University, and the attention that such a vehicle brings towards people, I found myself to be stuck.

One fine Sunday, 3 days after I have started dailying the Jeep. One breakfast later, I am driving the vehicle. I take a turn, slow down, and change gear. The vehicle is not moving. It is accelarating. But the vehicle is not moving at all. I stopped the Jeep, and prayed with all might in my body, for the vehicle to at least move till my parking, so that I could park it safely. I start the vehicle again, and thankfully it starts moving at odd numbered gears. Running the Jeep on 1st and 3rd, I somehow managed to get the vehicle to the Parking, where the gear doesn't engage again, and I ram into the Tree in front of me. The Jeep, with its solid build quality, withstood the small speed impact, with no damage, but the sheer torque of the vehicle almost made it climb the tree. End result was the Jeep with its front bumper perched on the middle of the tree, but due to the low speed of the impact, the Jeep was fine.

2 hours later, the culprit was identified. The gears of the Transfer case were absolutely torn through. This was just the tip of the iceberg. The reason why the teeth were torn in this is also because of vehicle being stuck on 4wd, an issue with the levers not engaging properly. In the middle of rural TN, I somehow did not have the courage to fix it in person, but rather, to take it to the nearest big town, and have it fixed and brought back, purely for the sake of assembly.

Part 3 - Probably the Longest Auto Ride Ever

In Uni, for any issue associated with pick up and drop, we have an auto driver Anna for contact. As much as I wanted to carry the transfer case by bus, the fact that 5 people, including myself were required to lift it, meant that there is need for other transportation. So I make a call, asking for Taxi cost, till Madurai.

Here's how the Conversation went -

• Me - Anna, I wanted to know how much would a Taxi cost till Madurai, my vehicle has some repair work for which I have to carry the entire gearbox assembly with me.
• Anna - For that we have auto no, I can take that on Auto.
• Me, but this time a bit confused - An Auto, till Madurai ? (For context, this is about a 100km one way)
• Anna - I do this route often, don't worry.

Having being assured that the auto is feasible, one fine Wednesday, I decided to cut classes, and take an auto back to Madurai. I don't think I've had a more confused drive or ride anywhere, like I've had at this moment. 20 km into the actual journey, and I was still confused on whether what was going on was real. But then the sun, and the intense windnoise which kept on testing the limits of ANC Earphones proved that it is real. After a whopping 3 hours later, the Gearbox finally reached Madurai, secured with the trusted mechanic.

After thoroughly opening the gearbox and the transfer case, the teeth of the transfer case needed to be replaced, which thankfully is possible, owing to the entire assembly available for sale from the nearby Mahindra Genuine Parts Seller. 24 hours later, and the Vehicle was back to being assembled.

Part 4 - The Jeep Finally being Ready

Once the gearbox was fixed in Total, next step was to bring back the gearbox to the workshop, for which the Trusted Dzire, along with its Immense Bootspace meant that I could easily take this back with me.

Once the gearbox was inserted back, the next issue was with the Gear Levers. The gear lever assembly, which included washers, and a brass spring, had all disintegrated, with the washer warped, and the spring broken. Next in line was to fix the gear lever assembly. For this, a new gear lever assembly was brought, onc again available as an official accessory from Mahindra, containing the big rubber washer which you see in the photo above, and below it, a metal washer, and a brass spring.

The reason for the entire assembly to be overhauled is because of the accident risk owing to lack of handbrake. This Vehicle lacks a handbrake, and I'm solely reliant on putting the Vehicle on first and shutting it down. The broken gear lever system meant that if I put the Vehicle in first, it would not stay in first, but rather go back to Neutral. The last thing I wanted was the vehicle to slip into Neutral and roll off somewhere. So while this was a simple 400rs fix, it was necessary, for both mine, and the safety of the people around this Vehicle.

Next issue was regarding Tyres, and Alignment. The previous owner, while having taken good care of this vehicle, had made one glaring mistake, which was that of mounting one tyre wrongly, specifically the left front tyre. While driving the Vehicle, something felt absolutely wrong, a pulling from the left, along with that of immense vibrations.

Changing the tyre, and mounting it back, along with Wheel Alignment was absolutely necessary. And to no one's surprise, the left side of the Vehicle was totally unaligned, due to which the Vehicle was wobbly at any time past 40, and was steering a lot towards the left.

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