so a little history of my truck.. 02 ranger 4.0 ( bought a new one after my avatar) owned by a 60 yr old man i bought it off of. i've owned it for approx 6 months now and i race atv's so i tow with it a bunch. because of the age of the vehicle i've had to replace one brake line due to the extra weight with towing so i know its under some stress. well recently i've felt my rear end moving whenever i come from a stop and give it gas. i got under it this morning and saw that its my rear end twisting up and down.. nothing is broken from the looks of it. however it looks like my rear end is twisting with the leaf springs ( put it in drive and do a brake stand type of thing and see my rear end moving and the springs twisting)... has anyone heard of this issue.. say the rear end is built for comfort and with the added weight the rear spings are unable to take the abuse?? has anyone heard or seen this before?? thanks guys

 

Its called axle wrap and its a common problem on all leaf springs rear wheel drive vehicals.


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not so much a problem with ALL leaf sprung vehicles, some are worse than others:

spring under axle combats axle wrap quite effectivly. spring over axle is more susceptable, and to make matters worse, most rangers also have a rear lift block. add deeper gears to the equation and rangers have bad axle wrap.

my truck is a 2006 fx4, in deep snow it wheels hops so bad i'm worried it will break something! on the street, it feels like the axle wants to twist right out from under the truck when accelerating hard.

i ordered the james duff traction bars on friday, so we'll see if they as good as everyone says! i expect to be pleased with the results!

PS: i've been told that for every one second of holding power in an automatic transmission (like what you did), you raise the fluid temp in the torque converter 100 degrees!

 

ya i've never been a fan of powerbraking a vehicle however in this situation it was necessary to see if there was an underlying problem.. i like the bars you can add to prevent axle wrap however i think thats kind of excessive in my situation. i think i'm going to try to tighten my u bolts and see how that turns out. if that doesnt solve it i'm going to look into simply adding a leaf to the stack.. it would fix the problem and add more strengh to my total weight load i can put in the bed.. anyone ever see a kit for adding a leaf?

 

just google add-a-leaf.

or go here: http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...KU&Ntk=P%5FSKU

 

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

This fixed my wheel hop in snow and actually I can get around a heck of a lot better because of it. I installed HD Bilstein Shocks, James Duff traction bars, and 1.5" block. The smaller block came off an 08 and leveled my truck out. The added effect was less axle wrap plus it doesn't clunk into gear anymore either.

 

Dont go too crazy on tightening the ubolts I snapped one the other day (not sure how I was leaving a parking lot) but it sounded like my rear end about blew up. if your towing you for sure dont want them to break with all the weight

 

the 100 dollar duff bars are in my opinion one of the best mods you can do to a ranger especially if you are towing. it is also one of the cheapest mods, all in all money well spent.

 

x2

 

hey i'm about to buy this, my truck is 4wd and it sais the application is for 2wd. does that make any difference?

to be specific my truck is a 02 ranger 4.0 4x4.

please let me know i want to get this thing fixed..

also what do you guys think i should do with this add a leaf. my truck wont be level anymore. anything you guys suggest to work with this or just leave it and run it?

 

I don't think it will work for a 4X4. I assumed yours was 2WD by your avatar.

 

tightening your u-bolts more isn't going to do ****.. if they were loose you would know it.

 

The OP is also feeling the slipyoke "doing its thing".

You could re-grease the slipyoke and temporarily cure the bump you are feeling at stops and starts. Ford put out a special grease for the slipyoke.

 

i was going to mention that too. also the Duff traction bars work well for the axle wrap issue. i have them on mine

 

thanks guys im going to take my truck to a local leaf spring company to see if they want to replace them or add a leaf. if that doesnt solve the issue i'm going to go with the duff bars on it. how do i grease the slipyoke i got under my truck when i first bought to try and grease the front end only to find out that there are no grease fittings in the front end ( i'm used to my old full size blazer ).. is there a fitting somewhere to put the grease in?

 

axle wrap is a natural thing with leaf springs.. just get some JC trac bars, its cheaper than having a shop replace leaves, or paying to install AALs for that matter.