OK guys, we've moved past tank mods, injectors, turbo, plenums, intake, exhaust, brakes, transmission, drive line... and now I think I broke Stinky's 4X4. The plow guys at work left a nice snow pile in front of my parking spot and I had to kick it into 4X4 to get through it. I had a sharp angle on my steering wheel and I had all four wheels on dry pavement... then I heard this gawd-awful POP or SNAP and the whole truck jerked pretty violently. I now have a new vibration in the truck on the open road and I felt around for warm stuff under the truck after a 45-mile drive. Everything is nice and cool, except for that silver thing (I have no idea wat it's called) on the back of the transmission... the thing that the front and rear drive lines come out of. It's not flesh-burning hot (good thing, since I mindlessly grabbed ahold of it), but one would think 65 MPH at 34 degrees would make it closer to the temp of the transmission.

Now what are we all going to learn together? I can smell the scent of hot plastic, as the shrink-wrap around the Buck$Zooka melts away. I dare not tell the wife I broke Stinky... not after I just got everything running right. She's trained in defensive tactics, in weapons, and she's armed. I don't know what'll come at me first - a flying elbow to the eye, a firearm-ladened swinging purse to the ear, or lead to somewhere in-between.

 

is that thingy your transfercase, if it is, ouch!

 

do you have manual of auto hubs?

sounds like you might have popped a hub. I was in a similar situation, heard the same thing you described and it was the drivers side hub.

 

I sure hope you didnt bust your transfer case...was this long drive in 4x4 as well when it got hot? Transfer case has fluid in it as well as the transmission and it is separate so I would assume that it would get a little hotter than the transmission since it has less fluid, and no cooler. I guess easy thing to check would be to jack up the front end, make sure youre in 2x4, and try spinning the front drive line. If you can turn it and both wheels turn without noise or issue, then I would assume its behind the driveshaft aka transfer case. If not, then you should be able to see an issue whether it be one side turn or not.

 

The front drive line spins freely when the hubs are in Auto, I checked that it at least still does that. I didn't hear or feel anything unpleasant in the transfer case when I spun the front drive line. I could pop the hub and get a look at it, and the drive home was in 2X4. I put it in 4X4 for just a few seconds and the sound told me don't do that again. The heater still does it's thing, so I didn't loose vacuum.

 

Michelle said you should bill the city for the damage... since nature didnt pile the snow there...they did. lol!

try manually locking the hubs 1 at a time... rotate front drive shaft and watch/listen...
then disconnect the vacuum line going to the esof selonoid and plug it ... set hubs to auto and then engage 4x4 high at trans case... rotate front shaft... then repeat test in 4x4low.

my vote is a ujoint since you were torquing on hard cut wheels. i did the same thing in my beast a couple years back trying to climb out of ruts. ended up breaking both ujoints on front ds and lost it in about a foot and a half of gumbo black mud.
went back next day with shovel... dug driveshaft up... new ujoints... reinstalled... happy truck.

 

My vote too...I have always avoided having the wheels turned tight when engaging 4wd because of the strain it puts on the u-joints.

 

Man that sucks. Disconnecting the vacuum lines (or just unhook the plug) to the actuator will allow you to engage the transfer case without locking the hubs. Lift the front end, and with everything unlocked and in neutral, check out that it all spins freely. Then start one at a time locking in the transfer case, locking in each hub, etc...

I'm with Chris, it sounds like it may be a u joint in the front driveshaft.

 

The transfer case only holds 2qts of fluid and has no cooling other than the aluminum housing. It will always be hotter than the transmission. So no news there.

Elaborate please.

Since the front shaft spins free in 2wd and the vibration is still present I would speculate the transfer case and front drive shaft are not the issue. At this point I would guess either one of the lockout hubs popped, or you snapped one of the u-joints in the front axle.

 

I'm going to guess a hub. I went through 5 or 6 on my 99 under warranty before I realize they were only good for snowy roads and even then needed locked in while you were still rolling.

 

This.

Mark

 

I also vote U joint or a shot hub, I had a similar thing happen to my Ex when it was in 4x4 on dry ground it wanted to rip the wheel out of my hand when turning to the right at any angle. I also had a strange vibration. At almost 300,000 miles on my truck It turned out to be a bad drivers side Ujoint.

 

The driver side was the source of the noise and I was turning hard-right. Stinlky was grounded today... I had to dig "Vixen" (Corolla) out of the snow to drive to work. I'll be rootin' around the driver-side tire in the AM.

Thanks to all for the great feedback! This place rocks!

 

if you cant find anything,with hubs or drive shafts,you might pull diff. cover and look at spider gears & ring gear.

 

I'm still guessing hub. I had a list of reasons, but hit refresh instead of spellcheck. Not typing them again.