I'm in the process of replacing my oil pan on my '97 talon tsi and right now I have the transfer case off. While I was waiting for my new oil pan to come in I, without thinking, hopped in my car and slipped the shift knob back and forth a little in neutral and heard what sounded like a washer fall to the ground. I looked thoroughly on the ground under my car and near where the transfer case was taken off but couldn't find anything. Could something have fallen off of my shift linkage or the spindle that's exposed after taking off my transfer case? I'm not sure what it was or where it would've fallen too. Anybody that could help me understand what happened would be appreciated.

Well what else was loose? There is nothing from tcase or trans that is loose just from tcase removal. So....youre going to have to answer this as we dont know what else you have removed at the moment

Well I shall do some more poking around tomorrow, just wanted to see if there was a straight cut answer that after a tcase removal something would be freed up to be more prone to dropping out or something.

Could very well be one of the many missing 10mm sockets !

I mean I'm shooting blind here but if it *was* something related to the transfer case, maybe the previous owner used a washer/spacer somewhere for some reason, or maybe a helicoil in one of the bolt holes on the tranny side? You never know what people have done. Otherwise like Pauleyman said, nothing should really fall off like that during T-case removal.

Could just have been a random bolt/washer or little thing stuck in there.

I can't think of anything. As previously stated, lot's of stuff go missing in the sub frame and engine bay then fall out years later.

Make sure that one of the locating dowels didn't fall out. Never really seen that happen, but there's a first time for everything .