Should my wheels be spinning?

I at present have a fault with I believe my transfer case!
It all seems to work but has a grind in noise that sounds like something just miss meshing! You can only hear this from 45 mph plus.
My question is, when I lifted the front wheel in the air I could freely spin it!
The transfer case was in high and the gearbox was in neutral. I was expecting it not to spin! I thought it should wind up the slack in the drive train and then stop.
Would this suggest that the Transfer case is so lunched that I am essentially on in rear wheel drive?

Hi.
Spinning one wheel is not a good test. As well as the diff in the transfer box, there's one in each axle. Unless you've got diff lockers in front and rear diffs you may be able to spin a single wheel.

And with the gearbox in neutral you have nothing at the end of the transmission to stop anything.

Put it in gear, lock the centre diff and lift one wheel. The wheel shouldn't spin. Or at least it will spin a bit until all the slack is taken up and then it will be pushing against the engine.

zeaphod said:

hi.
Spinning one wheel is not a good test. As well as the diff in the transfer box, there's one in each axle. Unless you've got diff lockers in front and rear diffs you may be able to spin a single wheel.

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+1