Funny Noise in 4x4 mode with wheel turned

[elvisjer@]

Hey guys
Im new to the forum and the 4x4 explorer scene. Im an automotive student and just got a 1994 4 door E.Bauer 4x4 explorer. Its great and i love it, its got the automatic tranny but a lil problem. To start with the alignment is a little off if it makes a difference. When i have it in 4x4 mode (from rolling or stop) and have the wheels turned to a dramatic angle they don't seem to spin at the same speed of the rest, it stutters and hops. IThe two front wheels spin and burn out in sputters as the truck hops. Any ideas or am i going to have to start troubleshooting the hard way?

 

[Creager]

in 4x4, you crank the wheel all the way to the stop, and it bounces around?

sounds about right... i believe you are experincing axle wrap. or wheel hop

 

[ghetto]

sounds to me like you experiancing a locked hub if e.bauers have them

 

[elvisjer@]

So locked hub, is this good or bad? Im new to off roading. And also, this hopping is ok and normal?

 

[Creager]

i think its all normal

4x4 your not supposed to drive it on the street, this is one of the reasons... binding

 

[Vanquish502]

It's just the U-joints binding up. If you do it enough eventually you'll start hearing a bang, quite loud, that will shake the truck when the u-joint unbinds itself. This can break U-joints.

 

[elvisjer@]

So if i am off roAdiNG I just dont turn the wheel all the way...or is there something i can do to fix this. When i am "off roading" in outdoors areas and turning around after clearing something the car does bang while im turning around. So...its inevitable and will break my ujoints?

 

[DeRocha]

Creager has identified your problem. The 4x4 system in the 1st gen Explorer (91-94) is off-road (No dry pavement) only. If you do drive on dry pavement in 4x4 the traction on all tires will be enormous causing the hard binding in the front end (binding increases with sharpness of your turns as the u-joints will move out from their normal straight configuration). When you off-road this binding (or appropriately called torque wind up) is greatly alleviated due to the tires being able to slip on the dirt etc...

If your U-joints are banging when off-road I would suspect they are bad and need to be replaced. The U-joints at the stub axle shafts are the ones to go bad first due to the extreme angles they undergo. The lube inside the bearing caps gets dried out eventually allowing moisture to enter and rust out the needle bearings. Check out the U-joint link in my sig line for pics and info on changing U-joints.

 

[alexefron]

yeah 4x4 on dry pavement = bad

 

[adam45356]

when we first got are ol 1992 back in 1992 brand new my dad did the same thing, put it in four wheel drive on dry pavment and it started hopping (wheel hop), so he took it to the dealer and they said it was supoose to do that becase one wheel is travaling faster that the other and in 4x4 there locked so one spins or hopps to keep up.
4x4 on dry pavment is bad, the wheel tries to spin on the asfult and insted binds due to all the traction and its not good on it at all.

4x4 is for slick conditions.