Help with Front Dif problems

[exploder97]

Hey everyone, i am having problems with the front diferential on my 97, the problem is that when i pulled the axle down and checked out the ring and pinion it looked fine, but i have excessive wear on the spider gears.
The whole thing started with a loud clunking noise coming from the drivetrain and i removed the front axle shaft and it was gone. So i need any kind of insight as to what could be the problem. Should i replace the Carrier????? Is there anything else that could be wrong. Please let me know I need this to be fixed ASAP.

Thanks

 

[NHale623]

Are you pulling the axles, or the driveshaft?

Did you try to clean and lube the slip joint?

When does it clunk? Braking, acceleration, cornering, going over a bump ...

 

[exploder97]

Well the entire axle is out of the car now, i checked the ring and pinion...Fine
i checked the carrier out and there seems to be some wear on those gears but other than that its fine, now i did notice that before i had the axle out i could turn one of the drive axles and it would bind up and have to use some pressure to move it.

The sound would only come when i was accelerating and only then.

 

[maxcr3]

I spent weeks trying to find what seems to be the same noise. I did all the above fixes nothing helped but it was good PM.

My spider gears were mushroomed also. Ford will not sell you just the spider gears. The whole assembly is about $400. I bought a complete axle on eBay with only 45,000 miles on it. Still had the cluck.

I changed the left front axle and 80% of the noise went away. The axle felt okay when I had it off to replace the front differential.

I then drained the transfer case and replace the fluid with Amsoil Synthetic Universal Automatic Transmission Fluid. There are clutches in the transfer case. Now I only have the cluck on hard torque up until 20 MPH. After 20 MPH no noise. Maybe someday when I win the lottery I’ll rebuild the transfer until then I’ll live with the clunk.