Hello everyone. Thanks for taking a look.
So I have a 2002 ford ranger 4.0 4x4 that has a loud clucking and grinding issue when I turn. To give a little background I live in colorado and I went to Leadville. Up there was snow everywhere so I had it in 4 wheel most of the time. Well on my way back to Denver I forgot about the 4 wheel being on and drove 81 miles back in 4 wheel drive. Very hilly a lot of turns high speeds. I know it was not a smart move.. The next day in denver I went to drive around and I would get a loud cluck or grinding noise when I turned. It went from sometimes to all the time in one day. It does it in both 4wd and 2wd. Also I had a friend that is a mechanic help look at it. We did some tests by putting it in and out of gear and slowly turning. When we found that while switching from drive to reverse and vice versa the rear drive shaft would spin about 1/4 Of a turn before catching and when it did catch it made a fairly loud clunck. Now he was the first to see it and he asked me to do it few more times wiggled things around and told Mr that the u joints looked to be ok and the leaf springs were ok. So he thinks it's the transfer case. He told me to change the tcase oil because you never know it could just be low but when I do to look for metal shards. I plan on doing today. I'm on here today just to get other opinions. While he's a mechanic he says he's never worked on a ford ranger. I'm if you guys need more info let me know.

 

Loud clunking and grinding noise sound like cv shafts to me........ they make all sorts of noises when they are worn........ I'd say u need to look at them.....

 

Good call Jeff, I'm thinking the same but could also be in the frt diff

 

I guess it's possible...., but my money is on worn cv shafts👍🏻 Cv boots could've cracked and allowed dirt water everything else in there and flung grease out over time......I just replaced a cv shaft on my Honda this year....was flinging grease out, never did find the crack in boot, but then again didn't really care either....lol just replaced it and move on....

 

I appreciate the replys. I was curious though would the cv axle cause some of the slipping in the drive shaft? I really don't know much about drive train but would the loud clunking from a cv axle happen if the truck was not in motion? As I have stated before I had a fair amount of play while stationary and could repeat the clunking sound when putting it into drive and letting off the break for a second then putting into reverse and letting off the break a bit. The whole truck would jerk either way. I will still look into those cv joints though. I did watch a video just recently where a lady was having the same problem and the mechanic found that she had ground off some some teeth in the front diff and the spider joint was seizing. I guess I am going to have to run more tests. I have also realized that something I did not think was a big deal might be. My abs light has been on for a couple of months now. The guy in the video and mentioned the lady had the same issue. I am about take it into a mechanic to find exactly what the problem is. I have no problem replacing things on my truck. It is finding what exactly do I have to replace. It is not a soft clunk it is shaking my whole truck and jerking it clunk.

 

I know quite a bit about motorcycles and to me it feels as if I have a loose chain. It slips a couple teeth then catches as it catches and jerks forward. This is what the clunking feels like. It is not a fluid constant jerk as if a bad bearing in a wheel or grinding it just does it at random intervals. That and it does it the exact same whether I'm turning right or left. From what I have been reading usually one of the cv joints goes bad or is worse than the other but for both sides to go out equally and have the exact same effect at the same time? Is that commen?

 

A bad CV joint can clunk turning right or left. In your case both sides may have a bad joint. Go inspect them! Look for failed boots. Jack both front wheels off the ground, turn the steering wheel almost to the stop, either right or left. Rotate the wheels forwards and backwards feeling for jerks and listenionmg for grinding and clunking sounds. If this test is inconclusive set one side down, go to the other side still raised and check for excessive backlash rotating the wheel forwards then back. Make note, set it down then jack the other side and do the same test there. Backlash should not be more than a few short degrees of rotation and should be smooth not jerky and should not have any grinding sounds. The backlash that should be there is not in the CV joints - if good they don't have any. The backlash is in the differential and is a very small amount. If the CV joint is bad the backlash will be greater and likely have a jerky feel to it and maybe some grinding noise.

Makanak