Hey guys, I have an 05 2500 4x4 with manual 6sp. The other day the roads were iced over pretty good, and it took 4wd to get to work. I had no issues shifting in and out of 4wd, but now, 3 days later, in 2wd Hi I can notice a slight vibration on the floor and a sound like something is turning that shouldn't be. I have engaged and disengaged 4wd Hi a couple of times to try to stop it but to no avail.

I can also notice a slight chattering(feel not sound) consistent with tranny rpms while coasting and braking right before pushing in the clutch to come to a stop.

When in 2wd the truck handles like it should, it is definitely not in 4wd. But it feels like the front driveline is turning. I have not yet crawled under there to see if the front driveline is free(which I believe it should be).

Come morning, I will be under the truck to further troubleshoot. With the selector in 2wd hi, I should be able to spin the front drive line by hand, correct? And if it does indeed spin freely, then I may be looking at a vacuum issue for the front axles?

Something is causing some unwanted noise and vibration, and I would find it to be very coincidental to be u-joints. I did have a rear u-joint go bad at 35000 miles, and I know they are crap. Also, I have 10k on fresh fluids all around, so its not that.

Any ideas are welcome, thanks!!

 

The front driveline all rotates while the truck is moving. Yes, the front driveshaft should turn by hand while in 2wd. If you had a u-joint on the verge of failing, putting a strain on the driveline by using 4x4 could have caused the joint/joints to give up the ghost. My axle joints and front driveshaft joints all had powder come out of the caps when I pulled them apart.....factory junk.

Just a guess, but if you feel a vibration in 2wd, pull the front shaft and try to eliminate the front driveline from the equation. It has to be a u-joint problem....been down that road too many times!!!!

 

if the frt wheels are on the ground and in 2wd you will NOT be able to rotate the frt drv shaft.

I too think you have a bad u-joint or two

 

Yep, my bad....front wheels must be off the ground to rotate front driveshaft!!!

 

It wasn't up front after all. It sure felt like it though, right under my feet. It was the rear U-joint on the rear shaft, AGAIN. This will be my third U-joint in 68K. This time I had a Precision brand U-joint installed and I can lube it!

The factory ones are crap.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

sorry but precision joints are no better in fact worse when used in frt axel, I went thru one every 4-6months when I used my truck commercially.
greasable Joints do not has as good a seal so contaminants get in and grease can leak out, joint fails. I've had best service and longevity with Spicer non greasable, if properly installed,(cannot mix up caps or add extra grease!) they are really reliable

here is a pic of a joint out of my truck that was lubed every month (approx 3000miles per month). even if you grease it there is no garrentee that the grease makes it to the cup, heres the reason why

only one yoke would take grease, all the others were plugged up

 

nickg, you had some bad luck with those huh? I had a set of the same Precision joints in my front end for 4 years before I ever started to have any trouble with them. I figured that since I was tearing it down for balljoints I might as well go the whole 9 yards and do BJ's, axle joints (went with Neapcos this go around), and the new design steering setup!! So far so good and the parts have about 3k miles on them.