Expert: Sean Halliday - 7/14/2009

Question
Hi I have a 94 isuzu big horn auto / 3.1 turbo intercooled diesel 284,000km regularly serviced, i have had the car 3 years from 230km. runs very well apart from the usual 'hunting' of gears that this model suffers from.
I live in new zealand in an area that rarely gets below 5 or 6 degrees even on the coldest nights. however we are experiencing a very cold winter and have had 2 or 3 weeks of frosts. (normally we would get a frost maybe once a winter and then very mild)
I usually warm the car up for 1- 2 mins before driving on any day. during the frosts when the car moves off, on hitting 20kph the drivers side front wheel skips like when you turn a corner in 4wd on asphalt. this is accompanied by a slight grinding from the gearbox. after the car has travelled 20 or 30 meters it stops, this only happens in 2wd, if you move the car off in 4wd its fine, its also fine in warmer weather or when the car has already been driven and the engine / gearbox are still relatively warm. however when the car is very cold such as after standing overnight or in the evening after not being driven i usually get this problem.
my mechanic doesnt have any ideas short of stripping it, I wondered if this was a common problem in colder weather with big horns.

Answer
There is no solution other than stripping the transmission/transfer case.I think you have a problem with the transfer gearbox.This would be a common problem with 4 wheel drives, with high mileage.Or,you could change the box for a used one instead of rebuilding the old one.