My Atlas T case (4 speed) failed today. I was just crawling along a slight incline on a ledge road in L LF LR and just starting to accelerate when the thing seized, shutting the engine down. It was like hitting a wall. (No we didn't hit a wall--it just felt like it). Lots of grinding on starting the jeep back up. We were evenutally able to get it rolling again, just with no gears. After a bit I was able to get it into H HF HR. We got to a spot to turn around. I pretty much coasted/braked down the mountain. Once down the mountain I could only get L HF HR and it was scetchy, wouldn't hold in gear. I coasted /brakes, used a case a bit to get back to my house which was not far from the trail.

This transfer case was in my jeep all of about 24 hours when it happened. Yep it has oil. Yep is was installed professionally. Until the failure point, it worked great. The trail I was on was nothing extreme, just an inclined rocky ledge road.

OK. Here's the deal. I had an Atlas fail on me last month too. Pretty much the same thing. It popped out of LLL going up an obstacle. Planetary gears/bearing let loose, manufacturing problem Atlas says.

Has anyone else had this problem with Atlas transfer cases?

Is there a better case out there?

Am I just a lucky guy who got two bad cases? Damn.