97 AWD terrible clunking noise

[Aricjm15]

This started last night during normal driving, I have the vehicle on jackstands right now and cannot visibly see anything wrong. Axle shafts and drive shafts appear fine. Brake calipers are tight and have not come unbolted. When the truck is put in drive and run on the jackstands 3 of the 4 wheels spin freely without any noise. When the brake is held down to put some load on the system it rumbles and vibrates like hell.

I'm hoping someone else has experienced this and can tell me what might be wrong. I am leaning towards the transfer case being screwed rather then the front differential. The front wheels can be spun by hand without any binding or audible noise.

 

[storlied]

It's your front driveshaft, it'll appear fine.. remove it and you'll see what I mean. It's the cv joint in the front driveshaft that's toast. Contact Ericautopart on this forum, and he can get you a deal on a New OEM Ford driveshaft, don't go to Napa for a rebuilt one.. and don't go to ford to pay hundreds of dollars more than you have to.

 

[rizzjc]

It could be the transfer case too. Hard to say which. When my front shaft went, it was worse when turning, which was kinda odd. When my transfer case went, there was a distinct clunking under load. I would say that constant clunking would be the driveshaft, only under heavy load would be the transfer case .... in my experience.

 

[eXcali]

Check your wheel hubs while you got it up on jacks. It's hard to call some things without looking at it yourself. I only say that because you said 1 wheel doesn't turn freely by hand.

 

[Aricjm15]

Check your wheel hubs while you got it up on jacks. It's hard to call some things without looking at it yourself. I only say that because you said 1 wheel doesn't turn freely by hand.

I said the wheels DO turn freely by hand. Its when it its in drive one does not spin, but that is because of the open diff in the front.

From everything else I have read on here it seems that it is most likely the transfer case. There is no noise when there is no load on the system. When you press on the brake and the gas at the same time the front wheels do not spin but the rear do, probably the chain in the transfercase slipping.

 

[storlied]

The cheapest and easiest way to tell would to be to just remove the front driveshaft and check the cv joint. 2 bolts for the front, I think 6 for the cv flange. This is the most common issue with the V8 AWD.