98 Mazda B3000 4x4 stock front suspension 32x11.50 at tires

I had just gotten done adjusting my new headlights and went out for a test drive. I quickly noticed they were not aimed correctly and made a sharp full wheel u-turn in an intersection in my neighborhood. I didn't make the turn all the way and noticed a loud pop from the front end of my truck. I backed up to complete my 3 point turn and it popped again. Completing my turn and heading back to my house it popped 2 more times. As i turned into my driveway and up the bump at the curb it popped several more times. I was worried so I visually inspected the front end and could not find any loose or broken parts. I jacked up the front tires one at a time and attemped to push and pull on the bottom and top of the tires and there was no looseness. I then went under the truck and rotated the front driveshaft by hand. There was no binding spinning it in either direction and the tires did not rotate. I have had these tires for quite some time so I am certain that they are not binding on anything.

Does anyone have any ideas what this might be? Does anyone have any more tests I should perform.

Thanks,

Marc

 

This same thing happened to me...it was my ball joints..just my 2 cents. good luck man

 

Could be a cv joint worn out.

 

x2

 

i had a weird pop similar to what you are discribing when i turned hard or hit a bump, it turned out the be a rock in my arm pocket and it woud crack and pop on every bump, deffinatly check for any thing unusual like that under the truck.

 

Well if you're turned to the full lock it's just the bump stops when the spindle hits the control arm. But my truck is a little bit noisy too sometims I just don't let it bother me. I just turn the radio up.

 

I have this same problem but I think ford diagnosed it wrong. They said It was my inner tierods. But I was wondering what a arm pocket and a cv joint was so I can take a look myself.

 

I woke up this morning to call my mechanic and ask if he had any time to look at my truck today. He said yes, so I planned on leaving work early and bringing it in. My plans changed once I started driving to work. The popping was much worse, causing my whole truck to jump and shake, and would occur with any amount of wheel turn. It also sounded more like it was coming from the rear of the truck instead of the front. Yes, my rear differential has exploded again. I had my rear differential rebuilt last year after some teeth broke off of my spider gears. The mechanic who worked on it replaced the spider gears and left the ring gear in there even though it had a chipped tooth. I was a little concerned about this afterwards and my rear end was still making the whining noise it had made in the months leading up to the spider gears breaking. I brought it back to him several times about the noise, which he said was normal or blamed the noise on my tires. He assured me that if anything happened he would take care of it. Anyways I drove my truck back to him to try and get him to warranty his work. He hasn't gotten back to me yet but he also hasn't had much time to look at it. I'm just thinking ahead here but I was wondering what you all would suggest doing. Should I order a quality aftermarket set of gears and have him install them? Should I ask for a refund of labor and go buy an 8.8 explorer axle (I would have to find one with 4.10s)? It currently has 7.5 4.10s LS.

Thanks,

Marc

 

did you have a aftermarket posi put in but just the spider gears?

 

I would see what you can get out of him, but I wouldnt let him touch it again. Sounds like he did a half arsed job to begin with, hoping it would be a long time before he has to work on it again, then being able to get out of warrantee work by putting the blame on you.

 

When he initially rebuilt the differential he only replaced the carrier bearings and the spider gears with ford parts. It already had 4.10s and a limited slip from the factory.

 

x2

 

Sounds like you need a new mechanic, not a quality set of gears.

 

I haven't heard from him yet, however, I think I have decided what to do. I will let him rebuild the whole thing with new parts and then drive directly to my new mechanic and have him check it out to ensure that it is set up correctly. That way I will only have to pay to have my new mechanic inspect it and I will know that it is done correctly. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

I would have it towed to a good mechanic because if the bad one sets it up, the new one still has to pull the cover and re-fill the diff with fluid.

 

I would not bother rebuilding a 7.5, its jsut going to break again. Just go to a junkyard and get a ranger or explorer 8.8 The ranger 8.8 would be the easyiest since it would bolt right in.

 

What would be the benefit of paying to have it towed vs. paying to have the cover pulled and refilled with fluid?

 

What year rangers came with an 8.8. The junk yards around here don't have anything newer than 1996 unless I go to a yard where they pull the parts for you. If I do buy an explorer axle is there anything required other than flipping the spring mounts?

 

Also, when looking for new axles is there any way to tell the spline number of the axle? I looked at my axle tag:

S371M R
4L10 75 7M16

Is there any way to tell by looking at this tag?

Thanks,

Marc

 

28 spline.

It does not specify on the tag.

Get an 8.8. Check our classifieds

 

Well, my spider gears were toast again so he replaced them and put it back together. Unfortunately it had been over a year (18 months) since he had rebuilt it so the parts were not covered under warranty. However, since I had only put 3,500 miles on the truck in that time (I was deployed for 3 months and went on vacation for a month) he didn't charge me for labor. Total cost $57. Since this is my daily driver I figured I would let him "fix" it for cheap so that I have something to drive while I look for an 31 spline 8.8 with 4.10s and LS from the local junk yards. Now that I've decided what to do can any of you tell me which vehicles would be most likely to have the axle I'm looking for and how I can tell if it has 28 or 31 spline axles? Also are there any other good axles i should look for while I'm at the junk yard?

Thanks,

Marc

 

All explorers have 31 spline 8.8's

Rangers that have 8.8's are all 28 spline except for 02 FX4 and 03+ FX4 Lvl2

 

Back to the original complaint: I was just out under my truck because of a similar problem, but it happened not just when turning.

Found a totally FUBAR-ed outer tie rod end on the passenger side. I can rattle the shaft and ball in the body and it was sticking an binding and making a popping noise. I only replace these this past summer, so this one must be a defective one, or I damaged it some other way.

I kept my old ones and one of them was still tight so I put it on as a temporary solution. I'll get better quality ones tomorrow.