hey all, question about my 4x4 system. When I'm in 4x4 the system will clunk, and bang, every few seconds and disengage. No i'm not on hardpack surface. this happens in mud, loose snow, sand, etc.

I replaced the U joint on the front shaft, it was a little worn but not bad. Issue still exists. the front CV shafts are fine. I removed the driveshaft and put it in 4x4 to see if it was the transfer case, problem didnt happen. So I have determined it's either the CV joint on the front driveshaft (transfercase end) or something else that I can't think of.

Any ideas? Am I on the right track with my thinking?

 

Well the 2006 has live Axle, so in 2WD or 4WD the front axles and drive shaft are spinning.
So not a problem there.

It could be the shift motor is not turning all the way to get transfer case fully in gear, lights will be on but after you start going you will usually hear a grinding, don't remember a bang noise.
If front drive line was removed then no noise since there would be no resistance.

Same with a transfer case problem, if front drive line is removed then it probably wouldn't make the noise since a noise is generally when a part is resisting some force.

 

Should have mentioned the motor appears to be working fine. My bad. Took it off when it was in 2wd, 4hi, and 4lo, it moves it into each gear properly.

I took the driveshaft out again today, ordered a CV joint. Figured what the hell, truck has 180k miles on it, won't hurt to replace it regardless if its the issue or not.

Will report back.

 

We are talking about the CV joint bolted to the transfer case?

I think you can rebuild them but older ones were part of the drive shaft so you had to replace the whole drive shaft(or rebuild it), CV part didn't unbolt like a u-joint or cardan joint.
Maybe 2006 is different.

But since front drive shaft is active all the time I would expect the noise in 2WD as well as 4WD


Found 2006 model front drive shaft picture here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/98-99-00-01-...Model%3ARanger
It isn't detachable from what I see

 

Yeah its rebuildable. Parts ordered off rockauto.

I guess if it's bad enough the noise would always be there, but if it's not to that point yet, it makes sense it would only happen when there's power going to it, rather than just free spinning.

Time will tell! Should have the parts middle of next week.

 

alright, so I replaced the CV, and the issue still exists, but a lot less than it did before. it's almost gone, but still there very once in a while.

lets say before it clunked every 5 seconds, now its more like every 20 seconds. so it helped. but something is still not quite right. Maybe i'll do the ujoint again since it isnt brand new, and I have new ones sitting around anyways.

 

Thanks for the update