I have an 87 K5 Blazer with the 5.7L 350. I recently got it running as part the rebuild that I am doing on it. When we attempted to put it in gear, it would not engage any of the gears. When I attempted to put it back in park it made a grinding noise before going back into park.
I looked at the connection underneath and the linkage seems secure from the outside, with the transmission clicking with each change of the shift lever.
How do I diagnose the difference between a transmission and transfer case problem?

 

Sounds to me like the transfer case is in neutral, try shifting the transfer case into a different range before taking it out of park. The clicking you heard was the park pawl in the transmission trying to grab one of the notches that it locks into to hold the vehicle in park, when you had it in drive the transmission components were working and the rear output shaft of the transmission was turning, it just wasnt engaged inside the transfer case, when you put it in park the park pawl was skipping over those notches like Wheel of Fortune because there wasnt anything connected behind the output shaft to slow it down. In other words, when the t-case is in neutral it isnt connected to anything. See if the vehicle will roll by hand with the transmission in park. DO NOT try shifting the transfer case with the transmission in gear, if it is in fact in neutral, it will not sound pretty and may cause damage. Maybe the linkage to the transfer case is mis-adjusted? Neutral is usually between 4-HI and 4-LO

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you for the response. I will try it this weekend and post the results.

 

i second the neutral transfercase. ive done that a few times myself lol