New to the forum, having problems with 4wd.

[fr7]

Mmmh.. Make sense but... Today I stopped at my friend's house today, we're both trying to figure out the problem. In his gravel driveway I locked it in 4wd, dumped the clutch and both front wheels spin at the same time, both front and 1 rear did a short burn out before the engine stumbled and tried to die on me, (sorry, I got the 3.0).
After that, we raised the front end off the ground and spoon things around, then I noticed something that happened right after the swap that I didn't pay much attention to and forgot to mention in the first thread. As you know, with the PVH the axles will unlock right? After the swap they're permanently locked and everything will spin all the time. I don't know if this will make sense to you guys and I'm not sure if this is how its supposed to work, but this is what I found out, with the front wheels off the ground and in 2wd;
Spin either wheel; that wheel spins the driveshaft but the opposite wheel won't spin.
Hold the driveshaft; one wheel spins in the opposite direction, driveshaft won't spin.
Spin the driveshaft; both wheels spin in the same direction.
It might be a dumb question but, is this the way it's supposed to work??? I'm getting more and more frustrated. Any advice is helpful.. thanks guys...

 

[pjtoledo]

Hmm, you mentioned you swapped the whole front axle assembly from an explorer? Something that hasn't been mentioned is your front and rear differentials need to have the same gear ratio. Example if your rear differential gears are 4.10's you would need the same 4.10 ratio for the front end, otherwise you'll have all sorts of drive-ability problems.

Check your ratios ASAP and don't be trying to use the 4WD until you get the problem fixed otherwise you'll destroy that transfer case, it should make a little noise going in and out of 4WD, but it shouldn't make a tremendous popping or banging noise like you are saying...that leads me to believe your differentials are not the same gear ratios which means you are seriously binding up the drive train, something is going to break and it won't be cheap LOL.

this.

start over at the beginning, did 4wd ever work?

if yes then the following doesn't apply

if no, then:
put it in 4wd, raise both the left side tires off the ground (or both right).
transmission in neutral.
spin either tire by hand. the other should spin the exact same amount after slack is taken up. spin it 10 times or so, mark tires for an exact measurement. they should be exactly the same, if not the ratios are not matched.

 

[pjtoledo]

Mmmh.. Make sense but... Today I stopped at my friend's house today, we're both trying to figure out the problem. In his gravel driveway I locked it in 4wd, dumped the clutch and both front wheels spin at the same time, both front and 1 rear did a short burn out before the engine stumbled and tried to die on me, (sorry, I got the 3.0).
After that, we raised the front end off the ground and spoon things around, then I noticed something that happened right after the swap that I didn't pay much attention to and forgot to mention in the first thread. As you know, with the PVH the axles will unlock right? After the swap they're permanently locked and everything will spin all the time. I don't know if this will make sense to you guys and I'm not sure if this is how its supposed to work, but this is what I found out, with the front wheels off the ground and in 2wd;
Spin either wheel; that wheel spins the driveshaft but the opposite wheel won't spin.
Hold the driveshaft; one wheel spins in the opposite direction, driveshaft won't spin.
Spin the driveshaft; both wheels spin in the same direction.
It might be a dumb question but, is this the way it's supposed to work??? I'm getting more and more frustrated. Any advice is helpful.. thanks guys...

that's normal, its easier for the driveshaft to spin than it is for the wheel to spin

 

[fr7]

Ok, I spent some more time f***g around with it tonight, I drove it around the block a couple times in 2wd, 4-hi and 4-low. Yes, I know it's not good to do it on dry pavement, but half of my block is a gravel alley and I was going slow. Anyway, the first round I still noticed the same steering pull but I didn't notice the binding, I stopped downhill in 4wd, let go of the brake and the truck will roll. Second round I hit the gas and went to about 30 or so and slowed down, put it back in 2wd, kept driving and tried the downhill thing again, well truck won't roll this time... So, I put it in reverse, dump the clutch and forced it to do that "magic clunk" and everything was back to normal again. I didn't want to try a 3rd round since the neighbors where giving me dirty looks and the police station is 1 block away. I parked in the garage, jacked up the front end again and started playing with the 4wd... again..
I noticed this time, whit the engine running and in 4wd, (I know, a little dangerous even though it was in neutral and P-brake on), if I give the wheels a good yank back and forth I hear loud pops/clunks coming out of the T-case, and I can feel the wheels getting harder to turn. When I switch back to 2wd and try the same thing nothing pops or clunks and the wheels spin super easy, besides the normal drag you should have.
I think my suspicions are right, something in the t-case is binding, broken, tired, worn out, loose or something like that.
So what do you guys think? Should I just go ahead and mess with the t-case next? I really appreciate all of your responses and I'll be back with updates on how it goes... I hope this will help someone in the future....

 

[Curious Hound]

That definitely makes it sound more like a transfer case issue. But transfer case doesn't explain vehicle pulling to one side. Maybe you have 2 separate issues. I would definitely stop driving it in 4WD until this is resolved. Something is about to become much worse.

I could be wrong. But my understanding is that there is a very slight difference in gearing between front and rear in the T-case and that is why you should not drive on dry pavement in 4WD - at any speed.

Speaking from a mechanical standpoint, since I have not had a t-case apart yet, it almost sounds like you have a stretched chain and worn sprockets. So that when you drive in 4WD, the chain starts to ride up on the sprocket teeth and gets wedged between them and the t-case housing (I don't know how much clearance is there). Then when you put it in reverse, the chain pops back down between the sprockets where it belongs. I've seen this many times on other machinery. Either way, I would expect this to be making a bunch of bad noises.

 

[fr7]

I like your point about the chain, it does feel like it's got a lot of slack. I'm gonna try to get a t-case this weekend and take mine apart just to see what's wrong exactly, I'm still waiting for someone to confirm the explorer t-case will fit my truck.
About the pulling issue, I'm not sure what's causing it, when I'm in 2wd ir runs perfectly straight and almost unnoticeable or no pulling at all. The only thing I can think of is that since my upper ball joints are bad it might have enough movement to cause it to pull when the front wheels get power from the t-case, I might be wrong but upper ball joints is the only thing I haven't replace in the front end.
Im doing ball joints soon but I'll do the transfer case first and try it before the ball joints and see if it changes anything.
Thanks everyone, I'll post back with any updates.