Pulling

[Nhaz]

o/ peps.

Ok, last week the mechanic I brought my truck to have the front end aligned told me that there was Zero wrong with the alignment and it was pretty much dead on.

This doesn't explain to me why when I engage the 4x4 the truck pulls to the right.

Any ideas? the Truck goes pretty damn straight when the 4x4 is off. The steering box feels like its got some play, there's very little I can do about the steering box till summer at the least.

 

[brendank]

Sounds like one of the u-joints on the right side is seized. I would pull the shafts out, inspect them, and replace all 3 u-joints.

 

[Nhaz]

i just had the damn things replaced two months ago. right after i bought the truck and realized right away that the u joints on the front axles kinda flopped around. =>

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

You're not using the 4x4 on dry ground are you?

 

[WIDTIO]

do you know for sure that both front hubs are engaging?

 

[Nhaz]

No I'm not using the 4x4 on dry ground. And I also just replaced the auto hubs with a set of locking manual hubs.

The manual hubs are old and abused but as far as I can tell they work fine.

I don't have a locker in the front or rear differentials. I use this truck for courier work and put anywhere from 100-250 kilometers per day.

The 4x4 I do not use unless the road conditions get bad. And my idea of bad road conditions doesn't involve just a bit of water. or even lots of water. My idea of bad road conditions means that unless I have the 4x4 on the truck doesn't have the traction to move =>. which in my case its usually snow and lots of it.

 

[WIDTIO]

the fact that they are old and abused makes me suspect that there is little to no lube left inside those bitches making them not want to engage.

try to engage your hubs then grab the CV halfshaft assembly above the lower a-arm and try to rotate them back and forth. if either one of them spins then the hub is not engaging.

at this point they still might be salvageable, just might need some cleaning and some lube. let us know what you find.

 

[Nhaz]

Prior to putting the old hubs on I checked the grease situation out in the hubs.

There was so much grease that I was tempted to clean them out and start over but the only cleaners available at the location I was, was a shop parts cleaning machine.

which eats most petroleum based items. excellent cleaner for taking the first and third layers of skin off too.

But the hubs have a plastic twist switch and lots of plastics are petroleum based and I didn't want to find out if the cleaner would eat them. So I left the old grease right where it was and put them on the truck. With the logic that they came off a working 4x4 before I got them.

And they do work I had to drive home tonight in blowing snow and winds gusting up to 60kph. The 4x4 ate right through the shitty road conditions.

 

[np24]

That might be part of your problem right there. The manual hubs are supposed to have a light oil in them, not grease. Something along the lines of 10w-30.

 

[Explorin94]

You may have a bad caliper. The piston might not be going all the way back in. That would cause a pull.

 

[thegoat4]

Swap your steer tires around. If the pull moves the other way, you have a bad tire. Tires can be weird--sometimes they pull all the time, other times they pull only under power, and still other times they pull only when braking.

Anyway, it's a quick check.

 

[Evan]

You may have a bad caliper. The piston might not be going all the way back in. That would cause a pull.

But he says it's only when in 4x4. So that rules out the braking system.

I would almost gaurantee one of the hubs isn't engaging. Switch your hubs. If the truck pulls the other way, you know it's a hub.

 

[Nhaz]

I would have thought that with a hub not engaging the 4x4 would not work at all due to the differential spinning the side that didn't work. That's certainly what was happening with those shitty auto hubs I replaced.

The tire idea isn't something I would not have thought of. I will try that, The front calipers are on my list to be replaced already. The front driver side(left side) rotor is not wearing right(the inside is more worn by about 1/4 more then the outside) which means the calipers are most likely partially seized on the left side.

The price on the calipers is cheap the price on the rotors is not. I am planning on doing the rotors and the calipers at the same time.

But again the problem is only occurring in 4x4. If it was a brake problem would this not occur with or without the 4x4 engaged?

 

[brendank]

But again the problem is only occurring in 4x4. If it was a brake problem would this not occur with or without the 4x4 engaged?

That's correct. You need to start pulling things apart to find the problem. It's obviously related to the 4x4 system, so that's where you need to look.