98 Explorer Front End Knocking, Help! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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98 Explorer Front End Knocking, Help!

OneManWolfPack

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Joined
April 19, 2016
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City, State
Evansville,IN
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Sport V6
Album of Pictures
http://imgur.com/a/bf9UU

A couple of videos I took of where I'm stuck and what I'm looking at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emVTVagiLRw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7cqTJwq8-o -This one is the Old and New CV assembly's, just more detailed

Backstory
I imagine this has been screwed up for a while (owned this truck for about 2 years now) but I rarely had to drive above 45mph and stayed within city limits, so I kind of just put it wayyyy back, in the back of my mind. Around mid-February ’16, I took a new job as a package driver, delivering blood and medical supplies within a 2hour drive radius of my city.
Everything is going good, until a month later (mid-March) I noticed my front tires are destroyed from bad alignment and toe. [Tire Pics] I take it into the closest shop to get new tires and an alignment done ($266..yay!) Upon picking it up and driving off, that’s when my problem occurred. After making a u-turn and going back to the shop, the mechanic told me that they got it aligned as much as possible, but the cam bolts needed to be replaced.
My SO’s brother is a senior in high school doing a mechanic tech course (at a fancy tech center, complete with all the tools that are in a mechanic’s wet dream). He said he would do it for free, minus the cost of the parts. Being more tech savvy than I am with vehicles, I let him go for it. His teacher ended up saying that the cam bolts were fine, and that I needed to replace the UCA. [UCA pic] Even after putting the new UCA’s on, the problem still persists.

The Problem
• Upon hitting 30mph, there is a KNOCKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK sound coming from I think the Passenger side the most.
• You can feel it on the DRIVER side, like someone is taking a hammer to the under carriage.
• It can also be heard from outside the vehicle, from about 50yards away.
• This occurs from 30-45mph, and goes away at 50-60mph.
• While accelerating to 45 gradually and never letting off the gas, it will mostly NOT knock until I let off the gas at 45mph.
• From there, it will knock from then on out, until I come to a complete stop.
• The knocking gets slower/faster with speed.
• Going over bumps, potholes, etc. causes the front end to violently shake, and it feels like the passenger tire is going to fly off.

Questions
  1. Driver side looks like it has some scoring/burn marks, what could cause this?
  2. Do bearings need to be inside the CV joint on the passenger side, like they are on the driver side?
  3. If everything seems to be good and I put it all together and the problem is still there, what else should I check?

Sorry for the wall of text, just trying to be as descriptive as possible. I used Evan's sticky'd guide to get the CV axle assembly's out (great guide, btw:thumbsup:) as well as sifting through pages upon pages of the forums and internet. It's kind of hard putting all the information together when you're a pretty novice mechanic like me!
I'll say it quite frequently, but again, thank you guys so much for what you do here. Reading through a lot of the guides and sticky's has given me some confidence in tackling a few more jobs such as these!

Best Regards,
Zach
 



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We started cleaning up around 11pm, and around 1:30am I decided to go back to my truck and record the video, in the hopes that someone could point me in the right direction
 






I think there should be wheel bearings on both sides, but that doesn't mean they will look the same. the bearings on the passenger side may be inside the differential. i looked on rock auto and there are 2 different bearings for left and right. the sway bar links are these: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=4202718&cc=1304435&jsn=417
they connect the sway bar, which is what you had your hand on when you said tie rods at 2:54, to the lower control arm. That one looked really bent. you might as well replace them, when they go bad they can rattle and make it sound like the front end is falling out, both of mine broke and i think breaking is common on these explorers.

I would think the knocknocknock you hear would be bad cv joints, does it sound anything like this? https://youtu.be/2c1nxR7aq1o

replace the oil seals in the differential and put in your new cv shafts and see what you end up with. You may be able to replace the drivers side bearings if you can get them out.

Driver side looks like it has some scoring/burn marks, what could cause this? mileage and use. if they are spinning ok and look lubricated it may not be too bad. deep gouges are bigger problems than just burn marks. if you can, replace them.

If everything seems to be good and I put it all together and the problem is still there, what else should I check? there is a cv joint on the front drive shaft, from the transfer case to the front diff.
 






Thank you for your reply and advice, it helped tremendously!

there is a cv joint on the front drive shaft, from the transfer case to the front diff.
This was it! Took it off and drove it around the block, and no more knocking. So as I understand it, I can drive with this off, and essentially be removing the 4WD feature from my vehicle? (for now)

they connect the sway bar, which is what you had your hand on when you said tie rods at 2:54, to the lower control arm.
Lol, you found my goof! Like I said, I'm a novice to this stuff, and it was about 1:30am when I went back to film that video.

Now that the knocking is gone, whenever I hit a pothole or train tracks, I get the violent shaking in the front end. As you suggested, I think I will be looking into replacing the sway bar links next weekend, as well as the shocks. Would you consider doing the tie rods/sway bar as well? I'm multi-tasking currently while trying to put together a parts/price list and seeing what I can afford to do.



2nd question for you, if you feel up to it!

When I first bought the truck 2 years ago, 1st gear wouldn't work. I would have to drop it down to 2nd, get up to speed, then move it back into drive (auto trans). Reverse worked fine. I drove it like this up until about August of last year, when one day I was driving home after a couple drinks from the bar and had a "Fu** it" moment. Floored it down a hill in my neighborhood to 50, threw it down to 1st gear, nothing happened. About a week later it started working again! Just out of the blue, and it shifts just fine.

Basically, my question is, could that transmission "problem" have caused any damage to say, the differential or the transfer case? Should I look into repairing them(if it's needed) or do you think I'm just throwing money into a sink hole?
 






i've read, that it could roll when in park without the front shaft. so dont park on a hill. also there is some concern that driving without the front shaft could cause the AWD transfer case to go bad. I dont know about that. some say it will some say it wont.

tie rod ends cost like 8-12 bucks? you had an alignment done, then replaced the upper control arms. so you should get another alignment. I'd replace the tie rod ends because you should get an alignment after replacing those. so if they do go bad in the near future you'd have to get another alignment. belle tire did a good job on my alignment. if they are very loose, or move around really easy they could be worn. there are also inner tie rod ends to check. I replaced my inner tie rod ends and it was a pretty easy job. the hardest part, if there was one, was getting the boot on and making sure the tube got connected.

shaking or hopping when hitting pot holes, bumps could be an alignment problem. it could also be worn ball joints, tie rod ends or something bent like inner tie rods. when the toe is not set right it wont track good and will hop around.

slamming it into first gear like that could have caused the cv on the drive shaft to go bad, yeah, i dont know for sure. not sure if it would have weakened the cv or not. No point in worrying about what did it now. just if you like it, and have the money fix it, at least to the point where its ok for you to drive it.

did you see the cv repair sticky? http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406880

Should I look into repairing them(if it's needed) or do you think I'm just throwing money into a sink hole? i'd replace the cv joint on the front drive shaft. transmissions and transfer cases could get expensive unless you picked up a donor vehicle or got units from a junk yard. they're all sink holes and money pits haha. its a personal question to answer. if you like it and have the money to fix it you could have a nice vehicle. if its a rust bucket already, you dont like it, and can afford to replace it...tough call on that. i've dumped money into a focus to fix the front end. put in new axles, bearings, control arms, tie rods, ball joints, steering rack, motor mounts, steering knuckle. probably put 1500 into a car that was worth 1000. but drove it for another year, gave it to my son, he drove it for 2. then i sold it for 800 bucks. but i could not have replaced that car for 1500 at the time.
 






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