I think I've got 3wd?!

[CrashBandit]

Well its snowing mad-crazy here in NC and as I was leaving my girlfriend's parking lot with the auto 4x4 engaged I noticed excessive spinning and sliding around the lot. I decided not to leave because the road my house is on doesn't get plowed and I don't want to risk being stranded. Heres the symptoms...I heard a popping sound as I was driving straight about every 10 seconds or so. Seemed to be coming from the center of the truck, pretty much where the trans/t-case is. I took the truck out of 4x4 back into 2wd and circled the lot again and noticed that it was worse(obviously) than with the 4x4 engaged. So I've narrowed it down to either the suckass auto hubs or t-case. Any input from you elite guys? Theres no way of me getting the truck up to see if its engaging or not until the snow melts and I get my tax return(ftw!)to take it to a shop.

 

[CALDWELL]

do you like doin one direction donuts lol !!!! hahahaha


on a serious note though... that sucks !!! does the truck pull to one side when 4x4 is engaged ???

 

[TarHeel085]

if its coming from the center it sounds like a tcase issue. is it a popping or like clunking noise?

keep in mind that if you dont have any kind of limited slip or locker the wheel with the least resistance will only spin, so techinally if you dont have either of those two a fore mentioned things you have only 2wd, 1 wheel in front spinning and 1 in the rear. but under normal conditions both wheels turn under power.

 

[CrashBandit]

I took the truck home to see how bad they were and ended up getting stuck in my driveway! Which is maybe 10 feet from the road. While I was trying to get it on the road, this spinning/buzzing sound started and I quickly threw it into park and it stopped. Eventually a tractor pulled me out and I babied the truck back down the mountain. The truck makes a noise like bad wheel bearings, but I just got those replaced, so I think its the hubs not unlocking?

 

[4x4xbrian.com]

check your wheel bearing to make sure the are tight, loose bearing will cause hub problems. like the buzzing also the bad wheel bearing noise could indicate this

 

[CrashBandit]

I just replaced the bearings...as I previously stated. So its not that.

 

[Willard]

It's likely the auto hubs...

I would suggest cleaning them and seeing what happens. If that doesn't work your best bet is to go to manual hubs.

More on cleaning the hubs here:

http://www.explorerforum.com/Singleton/web/pages/fourwd.html