Hi. I've been searching and reading the forum recently, trying to find information regarding the noise coming front axle of my truck. I've seen several posts on the subject in the truck-specific forums, but I thought that this would be a good place to discuss it, since this is the tech forum.

Here is my specific problem: When I have both front hubs locked and the wheels turned, I get a loud "clunkCLUNKclunk...clunkCLUNKclunk" that seems to come from the left side of the front axle. The noise only occurs when both hubs are locked. I've unlocked either side, and the noise goes away. With the hubs unlocked and the transfer case in 4WD, the noise does not occur.

Both outer alxe universals have been replaced, and the center u-joint has been confirmed good. The drive shaft universals appear okay, and I would think that if there was a problem there, the noise would be present while going straight, as well as turning.

I've seen a lot of "this is normal", and "don't turn that hard". What I'm actually looking for is someone that has fixed the problem and made the noise go away, drove the truck with the problem until something catastrophically failed, and then fixed a problem that made the noise go away, or someone who has driven around ignoring it for years and miles, and still turned just as hard as normal, and never had any furthur issues.

So, I apologize for the redundant post, but any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

Nobody has any info on this?

 

Well, since you've had no takers so far... I was wondering what kind of surface you are driving on when this clunking happens in 4WD.

And yes, I have a Dana 44 TTB.

 

The truck doesn't need to be in 4wd, but both front hubs must be locked. The noise is the same on all surfaces.

 

Any chance the guts of your left-side hub are damaged and its clunking under load?

I also was thinking about the spindle bearing (the bearing INSIDE the spindle that supports the axle stub shaft). Could it be shot such that the axle stub's outer end can play around at the hub, like a football pass where the end of the ball does that tight circular wobble?

Just throwing out some possibilities... you'd really hate for it to be the front diff...

 

The left hub lock is a brand new Warn unit. The right hub lock is a confirmed good Ford manual lock. All the bearings were replaced last year when I had a catastrophic wheel bearing failure on the right side. This includes the spindle axle bearings.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd hate for it to be something in the diff, too.

 

Back to the top, again.

 

One of my buddies thinks there might be an issue with the TTB pivot bushings. Thoughts?

 

If you have both hubs locked and you are turning at full lock, you will ALWAYS get a clunking sound... there is no way around that, and it is perfectly normal, especially on dry pavement/hard surfaces. It appears to me that you are tracking a "problem" that doesn't exist. If you want to avoid the clunking, don't turn at full lock while hubs are locked in

 

This is my problem to a T. I may look at my hubs first but curious if you got this resolved.