driveline failure... 98-01 AWD V8

[Mean_Green]

I have a sport trac however, it has the v8 and AWD driveline from a 2000 and 1998 explorer. It worked great untill today...
Something catastrophic has failed in the drive line... here are the facts:
>previous to the the event of failure the car seemed to bind up on turns as if the awd viscus coupling was locking up and not allowing any differentiation. The car also exhibited a popping sound on turns.
>Well just before the "event of failure" a loud ping ping ping noise started to come from the front end. I limped the car home and let it sit for a couple of days over the weekend before I could get a chance to work on it.
>On sunday I drove the car and it seemed to work fine except for the binding up on really hard turns. I checked the CV joints and they are in great shape. There was a slight ping noise but I could not tell where it was from.

Today:
>This morning I drove the 4 mile from my house to FAU and it again drove great except for some binding when I made a tight turn into a parking space.
> However, when I left for lunch around 2pm I got just about a 1/2 mile from the school before it started to do the "ping ping ping" which within 100 feet became a "bam bam bam" as if some one was hitting the underneath of my car with a sledge hammer as hard as they could.
I immediately pulled over... now the car is stuck at a library about 2 mile from my house.
>I messed with it in the parking lot and found that the baming was quite a bit less violent when in reverse and making left turns and was worst moving forward and driving to the right.

So my thoughts is that the front diff has failed... and perhaps the transfer-case caused it due to not differentiating...

So it looks like I will be riding my bike to school for a while...

I have about $100 dollars to fix what ever is wrong. any thoughts.
-Don D.

 

[shadowless127]

sounds like a t-case. We have a 2001 RAM 1500 at work that does the same thing because it has a blown t-case.

 

[gijoecam]

Could be a t-case, could be a u-joint/CV joint, could be a differential... Need to do some more troubleshooting first.

Quick and dirty method: Drop the front driveshaft and see if it persists. If it drives nice and free with no bonding sans front driveshaft, it's likely a t-case issue. If it continues to bind sans front shaft, it's a front axle/driveline issue. Start there, check back, and we'll take it from there.

 

[Mean_Green]

Ok well I removed the front drive shaft and all troubles have stopped... so what dose this mean.

The Facts:
The car still has a light "pop" sound when turning... should not be a ball joint or anything because all those are new.

The "C/V" joint on the front drive shaft itself seems worn out or broken, so I am hoping that was the noise. Could that also cause the differentiating problems?

How can I test the x-fer case?

-Don D.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I know when my front drive shaft CV went bad it would make the noises you are describing.

 

[gijoecam]

If the CV head is bad, that could certainly be the source of the noise, but it's not going to cause the differentiation problem. It's just coincidence.

As for checking the VC in the t-case, I'm not aware of any conclusive way of testing it. If parking on an incline doesn't result in the truck creeping down the hill over a couple of hours, it's likely bad. That's about the only way I know how to test it.

 

[Mean_Green]

If the CV head is bad, that could certainly be the source of the noise, but it's not going to cause the differentiation problem. It's just coincidence.

As for checking the VC in the t-case, I'm not aware of any conclusive way of testing it. If parking on an incline doesn't result in the truck creeping down the hill over a couple of hours, it's likely bad. That's about the only way I know how to test it.

OK, there is a parking garage near me that is empty durring the weekends I could park on one of the ramped floors and use a tow rope to secure the car (so I cant go nuts on me) and see what happens. But if Its bad, which I admit It probably is. What are my options... or rather what are my options other than rebuilding.

> I see a member here wrote an awesome instruction to rebuild the t-case but that seems to be beyond what I can do in a weekend + I cant find the viscus coupling unit to order anywhere.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=218430

>anyone know what it would take and where I could get a 4406 f-150 t-case to swap on the cheep. or is that even possible to do on the cheap. (I know at least the front drive shaft would have to be replaced)

thank you for your help,
-Don D.