If your shaft looks like the one in the first picture my repair will work with out buying a new case. If the chain is worn or broken(i cant see one actually breaking suddenly), it wont help, but check out dvilles link on replacing the chain, he has an awesome step by step with good pictures. Make sure they inspect the splines very carefully for wear, if they look ok make sure they really grease them up before assembly. If there is some wear on them, you should get one my shafts. Mine let go on my girlfriend on new years eve in the middle of an intersection in sub-zero weather. She's 4'11", 95lbs and was trying to push it out of the intersection and no one even stopped to help. Glad our baby was at grandmas at the time.

Btw, the case is a New Process case made in good ol u.s.a.. Not much in there but a chain and gears.

rdonald, here is the other thread I was talking about. Also check out dvilles thread on changing the chain. The pictures will give you a good idea of whats going on inside there.

Awesome work Racemalibu!

I have a ticking noise that increases with speed and the stealership says it's likely my front driveshaft. But they want to wait until it gets worse. It's slowly getting worse.

Were any of you getting this ticking noise prior to this failure documented in this thread........... or am I into something else ?!!?

Without actually driving the vehicle its hard to say, but everyone I've dealt with so far has been suddenly stranded with no warning when the splines let go. If the noise your asking about is a sharp snapping noise from under the vehicle under acceleration, then it's most likely the chain is stretched out in the transfercase. I cant see anything making a ticking noise in the front shaft, if the splines were worn that bad, i think it would have failed by now, it could be something in the differential or cv shafts. If its a cv joint it would be worse when you turn sharply, like in a parking lot. It would only take a about 20 min for a repair shop to pull the front shaft out and inspect it for peace of mind and lube the splines up when they reassemble. Hope this helps, keep us posted on what you find.

Dropped you a quick email as I'm not sure this problem I'm having is on-topic with this thread.................. but who knows. No one has been able to figure it out for about a year and a half now and it's getting progressively worse.

Just some information on the chain. There are two possible chains for the NV125 Transfer Case used in the X5. One with one blue link or two blue links.

I have more information on the the blog: Cobra Transmission Parts 1-800-293-1848: Search results for nv125

Hopefully this information will be useful.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2640/...dbbe43de_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3419/...eb05cd4a3f.jpg

Just wanted to thank Tom for his assistance & very creative and affordable solution. We got stranded on 95N the night before thanksgiving the wife, kids and I. After towing back the X to the DC area, I heard from my mechanic on Monday telling me to basically replace the transfer case & drive shaft. In my case this would be the 2nd time around. Long story short, I called Tom and shipped him my drive shaft which he repaired and mailed right back. I picked up the X yesterday and couldn't be happier about the outcome.
Good solution if you have an older X & don't want to spend $2500 just in parts.

+1 sorry about no one helping you guys. I always help people when I can. My mother in law got hit by a car, thrown off her bike in the middle of an intersection. Some lady was yelling at her to get out of the street. Police were calle ambulance came, took her to the ER she had a fractured leg. But wtf was the lady yelling at her to get out of the street for instead of asking if she was ok. Anyway nice work, hopefully I wont need one, but I paid my triple A just in case.