Well sheeoot. Sorry to hear you're having this kind of trouble.
Is it a hard stop, or does it feel like it wants to start as you wobble it around? A little bit of wobbly movement and it may just need to be forced. A hard stop means something more troublesome.
And no, you should not have to force a splined pair together. But I've seen it with other things.
Run your finger (if you can) down the splines all the way if possible. Looking for even the smallest burr or deformed or overly sharp edge that would indicate something amiss with the machining.
Since it won't even start, I'm guessing that any damage or machining issues would be right there at the outer rim. Any chance you have a dial/digital caliper handy?
Just wondering if it's a thousandth off, or maybe more.
Usually with finely machined splines, even a half-a-thousandth in a couple of places would keep you from getting it started.
Of course it's a Saturday too, which means we can't get in to the shop to compare different units with transfer case shafts we probably have laying around.
I don't know if this is one of the parts we have to check every time they come in, but it sounds like it might be from now on unless it turns out to be a small deformation or burr on the outer tips of some splines.
I'll try to check in as often as possible today to see how things are going. In the meantime maybe someone has had similar experiences, or has used our yokes with no issue, will see this discussion and put in their 2 cents.
Paul
