I took my truck to an alignment shop to have him look over my truck to find a steering wheel jerk and a loud clunk noise. He believes it's in the transfer case driveline. Said to remove the driveline then drive it around and see if it goes away, if it does then that's the problem.
So to the question, how do you properly take this out? Do I need to make marks with a paint pen anywhere to line things back up or does it matter?

 

Your axle u joints are probably dried up and binding. Bad front driveshaft U joints won't cause a steering wheel jerk. Make sure your hubs are unlocked or not seized.

Go under the truck and try moving the driveshaft by hand and look for play in the joints.

 

He said he didn't think it was the front axle joints. You can spin the driveshaft by hand and the axle u joints don't seen to bind, they rotate pretty smoothly. You can push up on the driveline and it'll make a little clunk, and you can feel the pop in your hand if you know what I mean. Not like terrible, but enough to hear and feel it.

 

ive heard that if the 2 u joints on the t case end of the drive shaft go bad, they can make your truck do some funky things in 4wd. yank that drive shaft out and see if it still does this.

 

Well it does it all the time in just 2WD. But I'll put it anyways and see what happens. How do I get the thing out?

 

Can anyone tell me? I tried getting the bolts off but the shaft just spins.

 

Put it in 4x4 or lock the hubs

 

heat helps get them bolts out as well.

 

If you have the steering wheel issue/jerking etc in 2wd then the most likely cause would be the front driveshafts ujoints..Could be one side or both..The way to test is in 2wd turn wheels one way. Go under truck and grab front drive shaft. You should be able to turn it pretty easy. With bad joints you won't be able to.


Dick

 

Find another mechanic.

 

Oh! P.S. make sure your hubs are not engaged..

 

Sweet thanks for the test for driveshaft u joints. I'll probably go ahead and pull the driveshaft anyways just to see what happens and I'll check those front u-joints. Thanks everyone.

 

The driveshaft has nothing to do with anything in 2wd.

 

Alright well I guess I'll just do the u joint test and go from there.

 

If you have a jack and can raise the front you also can lock the hubs and turn the steering wheel to the right and rotate the tire. A bad ujoint will bang and be hard to turn.