Unpleasant clunking when turned hard

[thegr8schlotzky]

Hey guys. I joined up here when I had my tranny problem in 05. 30 some thousand miles and the tranny was dead. I searched and found a similiar case, got my answer without posting, so here I am with my first post.

I've got a 2003 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer with 56,492 miles on the clock.

There is an extreme clunking sometimes when the wheel is turned 3/4 of the way to all the way. You can hear the clunking as well as feel it through the steering wheel and in the passenger compartment. I believe it's coming from the front, but I can't be sure as it shakes the entire car.
At first I thought it may be that the automatic 4wd is trying to engauge because the controller senses the wheels are moving at too much of a different speed, however I tried driving around in 4x4 high and got the same clunking sound. It seems to show up more in reverse, turning right.

There is also a stuttering coming from the back under medium heavy throttle. It feels as if the rear differential is skipping or grinding. These cars don't have LSD do they?

I would love for these problems to be related but i'm not sure they are. Any help or diagnosis on the cause would be much appreciated..

 

[steventadams]

in 4x4 the clunking sound will always happen when you turn the wheel hard so that might not be a god point of reference... the fact that its doing it when you think you dont have the 4x4 engaged might indicate that your auto hubs arent disengaging properly and the axles are locked all the time.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194903

 

[thegr8schlotzky]

So what I've gathered from the thread, not pertaining to this thread, but an AWD car is essentially a car with two open or limited slip differentials, and a 4wd car is essentially two solid axles both being powered?

Anyway, so you think the problem lies with the 4wd? Would it be my first thought; the computer controlled module that decides when to engauge 4wd is not working properly?

 

[steventadams]

Does the clunking sound when turning happen all the time when you are in 4x4auto or does it just seem to be happening randomly? If it just happens randomly in 4x4auto it might be related to a bad wheel speed sensor which would make the engine send power to the wheel with the bad sensor when it gives an incorrect reading.

 

[thegr8schlotzky]

It's pretty random. Thanks I'll check those out as well.