Auto Tranny Clunk


nvrsunk02

15+ Year Member

Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
44
Points
3,101
City
Bethlehem, Pa
Vehicle Year
2002
Transmission
Automatic
Just bought a 2002 Ranger XLT 4x4 Supercab. It has the 4.0L with an Automatic and 83k miles. I notice that there is a clunk durring accellertion. It happens when starting from a dead stop. The truck starts moving and accellerates for about 3 seconds, then it clunks and then it keeps accellerating. It doesnt seem like slippage, and feels more like it is taking up slop in the system(but it does start moving before the clunk). After that initial clunk, it shifts and runs fine, but will clunk again when I slow down to a stop (again about 3 seconds from coming to a complete stop). It seems alot worse once the truck is warmed up. Any ideas?
 
If you have a two piece drive shaft in the rear, I would recommend lubing the slip yolk. Reason being, when you brake, you unload the rear suspension a bit. After you release the brakes and accelerate, the slip yolk has to compress again. Lack of lubrication will cause this mysterious "clunk". Hope that helps.
 
98+ Rangers I am pretty sure got all solid 1 piece rear driveshafts.

However, the factory one has a known slip yoke issue where the grease dries out and causes the slip yoke to start clunking upon acceleration and deceleration. The temporary fix is to regrease the slip yoke with Ford's special lithium grease. However, the best fix is to swap in the replacement aluminum driveshaft that they came out with for the official TSB. These driveshafts can be found in junkyards occasionally.
 
Thanks. Im pretty sure that it isnt an aluminum driveshaft, so I would guess that would make it a one piece. Is there a zerk fitting on the yolk to fill with grease?
 
98+ Rangers came with either a non-aluminum or aluminum rear 1 piece driveshaft. The 2 piece rear driveshaft stopped in 97.

You have to remove the dust boot to grease the slip yoke, which means indexing the driveshaft and taking it apart at the joints. Plus, greasing it will only temporarily solve the problem. Look at getting an aluminum 1 piece driveshaft instead.
 
What do you mean by TSB? Specifically what type of vehicle should I be looking for to get the driveshaft from? Year range, model, engine, etc? Thanks alot for all the help.
 
TSB = Technical Service Bulletin, it's what the auto companies release as a procedure to fix a common problem area deemed worthy of them to fix. In this case, Ford recognized that the OE driveshafts they installed on most 98+ Rangers had an issue with the slip yoke clunking through lack of grease. They released a TSB, originally calling for a regreasing of the slip yoke, and eventually a complete replacement of the driveshaft with an updated aluminum one.

I can get you the Ford part number for the updated driveshaft later this week. Year range is 98+, any model, any engine. It's a thick aluminum shaft with a hollow center.
 
Thank you very much. Did the aluminum driveshaft ever come from the factory?
 
nvrsunk02 said:
Thank you very much. Did the aluminum driveshaft ever come from the factory?
Click to expand...

Eventually they did start using them from the factory, however I do not know what year range. I suggest searching through the yards because any truck could have had it from the factory after 98.
 
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