Loud screeching post repair on transfercase

I was replacing all the old rusted bolts on my transfer case while I was home for Thanksgiving to make it easier to do the repair on my 4x4 once I get back to school. After I heated up the bolts got them all off and put new ones on, I tossed the truck in reverse and started hearing this screeching noise that cannot be good.

I instantly threw it in park and started doing research and I couldn't find anything. No, it is not a clunking sound. The clunking is the only thing I can find when searching on this. It does not make this sound when in neutral or when in drive.

The 4hi light is still flashing as always which is the thing I'm trying to repair once I get the money to do it. I'm just not sure how by replacing a few bolts the reverse is making noises it shouldn't. I haven't let my foot off the brake while in reverse for fear I'll cause more damage. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

I'm guessing the transfer case hasn't fully engaged one gear or another and is effectively in neutral or on the brinks of it, so what you're hearing is the gear teeth slipping by each other and contacting.

Going out on a limb guessing further, your 4Hi is blinking from an actuator issue so you're unable for the tcase to shift around at all? In recent years I've had my tcase slip out of gear by just parking the truck for some reason. I get in and 4Hi is flashing and possibly similar sound if I put it in drive, I put it in neutral and worst case have to get out and push the truck an inch or two and the shift fork will get unloaded enough to slip back to where it needs to be. So my first attempt would be put the truck in neutral and rock it and see if that changes anything, however if your 4Hi was already blinking I suspect it won't attempt to shift the actuator like mine does. Which in that case, hopefully someone has a better suggestion than dropping the tcase here and now and fixing it.

 

I’ll try that to fix the flashing 4hi but I still have no idea why I’d be screeching from around my tcase/trans area while in reverse. Any ideas on that?

 

I don’t know which bolts you replaced but, could one of the new bolts be a little longer than the old one? Now it’s rubbing inside the tcase? I’ve seen it happen before on an old manual transmission.

 

Only bolts I replaced are the three that hold the tcase onto the trans and the five that hold on the sheet metal covers. In the process the tcase did slip out a little but I just pushed it back in and tossed the new bolts on. I’m just super confused why going into reverse is the only issue. While neutral and drive have no issues.

 

Update: it doesn’t move at all in reverse. When you let off the brake it just sits and screeches.